


Time destruction

by cisco_centric_4ever



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-02-10 04:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12904098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke, have just witnessed the end of their would as they knew it. right before them lay the bodies of their friends and comrades, lifeless, just like everything else that was around them. The trio lose hope of ever having the happy ending that thy were all fighting for since the fourth grate ninja war started. However, as they live their days in silents and darkness, just waiting until they met their friends again in the after life, Kurama, the nine tailed fox that lives, and chose to stay, within Naruto spoke up. He suggested to them that this was not the end, that they could go back and do it all over again. But this time, when they will, everyone would be alive with them. But the real question was, could they do it?Being struck by the last and final sliver of hope, Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru agreed without hesitation. Little did they know how difficult it would be to actually sit the world on the right path, while keeping their past and future selves properly allied with the correct times. Will they be able to achieve their goal? Or will history truly repeat it self as it's known to do?





	1. Are we finally back?

Naruto fell to the ground and just lay their, he was looking up at the sky with his two brothers, silent, as always. The three didn't speak, they haven't made a sound since the end of the war, when Madara had set off his last attack. The explosion was big that anyone that wasn't behind the Kurama enforced susano, they would have died within seconds. No one had time to prepare for the attack, not even the other kage, they all perished as the attack scorched the the land. It took out field, villages, whole cities in it's wake, nothing was spared, but since Kurama was just able to sense that something was happening, and allowed Sasuke susano to merge with his chakra, they just narrowly escaped. When everything was said and down, the out come was overwhelming. The battle field they were in before was covered in dead bodies, some injured people just barely clinging to life, but at least they were still alive, and after, those same bodies were burnt. The land became black and it was clear that nothing would be able to grow in the soil any more, thanks to Madara, humanity would end with just these three left to tell the tail, if anyone was still alive to tell it to. During the war, they all received injuries that should have either killed or scrip them. Shikamaru almost lost both his legs, after Madara's attack, his legs barely made it behind the barrier, Naruto healed him the best he could with his sage powers, and Sasuke helped where he could, but it was unclear if Shikamar's legs would heal fully. Still it's been two weeks since then, and Shikamaru's legs still bleed in some places 

 

This doesn't mean that Sasuke and Naruto didn't have scars of their own. No, other than Sasuke's missing arm, he's been burned by some of the enemies forces, he still had the scars to prove it. Half of his body was burned, and he was missing a piece of his ear from a close shave by a resurrected Akatsuki member. As for Naruto, there was one attack from a revived Kakuzu that scared deeply along his chest and left arm, he almost lost it after it happened. But even with all these physical scars on their bodies, they had none more horrible than the ones that they got from seeing all of their loved ones die and get burnt alive from Madara's attack. That sight alone took away their breaths and made them wish for death, even Kurama was saddened by the loss to the Allied Shinobi Forces. It was the one time that humans had looked to tailed best as something, not to be feared, but as something to place their hopes in. Now that all that this has happened, Kurama wished more than anything to go back in time and..... **"That's it!"** Kurama lifted his head up and looked around his cage, a slow smile came onto his face, **"that's it!"** Focusing a little, he managed to pull the three into Naruto's mind scape, they all looked up at him, he smiled down at them,  **"guys, I just remembered an ancient forbidden jutsu that was taught to me by the sage of six paths way back when. I think it can still be down, but it's going to e a bit risky, will you guys help me out?"**

 

The trio looked at each other, they thought that the fox had finally lost his mind. The scars were weighing them all down, the mental images kept them all awake at night. They thought that this might have been Kurama's way of telling them that he had finally lost his mind because of it, so they listened to him. They looked up at the excited ball of chakra mass, waiting to hear more of his plan, but they still said nothing.

 

Kurama was a little discouraged by their reaction, but kept his mood steady. He walked over to the doors to his cage, opening it up with his tails, since the seal came off long ago, Kurama was free to enter and exit his cage whenever he wanted, but he chose to stay since Naruto was the first human container to accept him.  **"I know you guys may thing that I have lost my mind, but I promise you, it's still well in tact."** He sat before them and started to explain,  **"you see, back in the time of Haguromo, the old man had taught me and Shukaku a secret jutsu that could turn back time. But the only way to complete it, is to have the help of three others preform the hand signs and infuse their chakra with each other. The reason why this jutsu was forbidden was because it was next to impossible to three people who was strong enough, let alone, the people who could infuse their chakra with each other. However, since you three are the so close, I was thinking that this could work, isn't that grate!"** Kurama wagged his tails happily, waiting for their response, but again, he was discouraged by their lack of joy to this news,  **"guys?"**

 

"Kurama, that's nice, what you going to do next? Bring back the dead?" Naruto ask, his voice was horse from not speaking for such a long time, he didn't feel like taking ever since the war ended and they lost everyone. If this was Kurama's way of building up their hope for something impossible to happen, then he wasn't sure how to feel about it. 

 

Sasuke didn't say anything, but Shikamaru was staring at the kitsune with intense eyes, he could see a fire there, one that he handed seen in anyone's eyes since the beginning of the war.  _Could he be telling the truth?"_ He wondered to himself, he struggled to stand, until he remembered that he was inside Naruto's mindscape, he wasn't sure to walking on his legs without feeling a burst of hot, fiery pain shoot up and down his legs, just moving them at all hurt too much to think about. Since he was in Naruto's mindscape, the pain wasn't an issue, so he stood, "Kurama, are you telling us that you may have a way to undo this? All of it?" He asked, doubt was deeply etched into his voice and eyes, but he wanted to know.

 

Kurama took in the Nara, he was almost covered in bandages due to the other attacks during the war, saving friends...losing friends, and collecting scars along the way. They all were in the same boat, they were tired. And with that, Kurama knew that he had to get his jutsu to work no matter the cost to himself. He stared into the Nara's eyes, determined to make him see his plan, he knew Shikamaru would get it, and the other's would soon fallow in his lead,  **"this will work, it has to. There's no way we can stay in this timeline and be alright, we have to do this."**

 

Shikamaru could see that the fox was telling the truth, but he still had his doubts, he wasn't sure if this plan of Kurama's, whatever it may entail, would actually work in their favor. Even so, Shikamaru balled up his fist tight, even so, he knew that this may be their only chance. "Fine, if you think this will work, I'm willing to see it happen," Shikamaru stated softly. 

 

The remaining two watched Shikamaru for a while, they both knew that it would take a little more than what they just been through to set the Nara on the crazy train. Even so, a jutsu that could change the out come of the war, of the wold itself? It seems to good to be true, However, if Shikamaru believed in it, why shouldn't they? The shared a look before turning to Kurama, "I don't know what plan you've got cooking up in your head, Kurama, but know this, I'll support it, if it gets us out of this situation. And even if it doesn't," Sasuke paused, "well even if it doesn't, it will be a good distraction....for a while at least."

 

Naruto huffed, "yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it our best shot. So....what are we supposed t do?"

 

Kurama smiled, he was starting to see a little bit of hope burning inside of their eyes again, this could be the chance that he's been waiting for. He cleared his throat and explain,  **"alright, the way to do this is to gather three humans, that would be you three, and have them infuse their chakra together. Once they do that, I will add mines to the mix and then will have to focus, you three focus on the place, and I'll the time stuff, there's no way I'm letting you guys chose the time we stop at."**

 

"Eh? Why not?" Naruto asked, he was the only one still sitting down for this.

 

 **"Because, even though it may seem easy to just pick a time and go there, this jutsu requires more detail than just a time around one's age. For this jutsu, you would need to picture everything, feel it, almost like you're back there again. Also, if I let you guys pick the time, then we may end up going back to a time that you guys were still just babies or something and that would not be useful to us, so I'm picking the time, that's that."** Naruto rolled his eyes, mumbled a 'whatever' under his breath before Kurama went on explaining.  **"Okay, first, you three will need to focus on infusing your chakra with each other, this will not be easy and will take the most time, two or three days at the most, so I suggest you get started. While you're doing that, I will gather my strength so I can preform the jutsu, when you guys are done, I will pull you all back into Naruto's mindscape so we can start the jutsu."**

 

Shikamaru thought for a moment, "do you have any advice on how we are going to be able to fuse our chakra's together? I think it maybe possible for two, but three people might be pushing out limit."

 

Kurama gave them a toothy grin,  **"nope, not a clue, it hasn't been done since Haugromo's time, and by then, everyone had already gotten chakra in their systems. You three will have to figure this one out yourselves! Good luck!"** Kurama then kicked the shocked three out of the mindscape so he could get to work on what he needed to do.

 

Outside Naruto's mindscape, Naruto screamed, "that BASTERED! How could he just kick us out like that with out giving us at least a little hint on how we might be able to do this thing!" 

 

Sasuke sat up with the help of his last remaining arm, his body still hurt from his burns, but he gritted his teeth and pushed the pain to the back of his mind. "Well, what did you expect, the jutsu is ancient, even if he did remember everything he was meant to do to get it to work on his head, the sage of sixth path might not of taught his what to do for the other part."

 

Naruto hummed, "I guess, bust still, how are we supposed to do this thing? Would it be like going into sage mode?" He wondered the last part to himself, but the other two still heard him."

 

"I think it just might be," Shikamaru said from his spot. He was laying perfectly still, he wasn't trying to move his legs in anyway possible. It wasn't just his legs that he was avoiding moving, it was his whole lower half, he was pretty sure that the damage was spread up to his thighs, and maybe even his hips. He could help but to wonder, it they did make it back to the past, would he need to be in a wheelchair because of his injuries? That would definitely set them back and put a burden on their plans. He sighed, there was no use in thinking about stuff like that now, "hay, let's just stat, I'm sure we'll figure something out at some point."

 

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other for a second before laying down again, this time they made sure that they were touching each other. They had been through enough together to know what each other's chakra felt like, even if they were far away and couldn't see each other, they were sure that they would always find each other. Together the three set about figuring out how to in fuse their chakra with the other, it was a task that prove to be trying, but eventually they started to get the hang of it. If they were to describe it, it would be like trying to find inner peace and harmony. Naruto's chakra was like a ray of sunshin, even though he didn't feel like it himself at the momenet, Sasuke's chakra was like a while storm that powered through everything that got in it's way, and Shikamaru was like entering a forest on a cool summers day, sitting by next to a stream. When these three came together, Sasuke's chakra storm slowly calmed, and Naruto's slowly chased the dark clouds away so that the storming would turn into more of a light shower of sun rain. As for the forest, it stayed the same, all things considered, the sun was out, even though it was raining, it was an odd wonder, a rare picture that could only be seen once in a very great while. Once their chakras had been completely in fused with each other, Kurama pulled them back into Naruto's mindscape, it was there that they noticed the change withing themselves from the in fusion. 

 

The trio opened their eyes to the feeling of warmth, not the warmth of the sun outside, it had been hot none stop since the attack, so warm really wasn't a word to describe the weather outside. However, the warmth that they were feeling felt almost as if they were being wrapped up in a great big hug.  **"Congratulations, you three have exceed my expectations and have completely merged your chakra's together....whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, well we'll see later on as we go."** Kurama boasted as he got up from his laying position not to far away, he walked over to them laid down before them, his tail curled around them, bringing the three closer to him.  **"Now here comes the hard part,"** he said.

 

Naruto sighed, "well, if this wasn't the hard part before, I'd hate to see what the easy part looked like," he said in a dull voice.

 

**"I only say this, because now you have to remember everything you lost. All of your friends, family, the place you grew up.....and then remember everything that happened to them. The pain, the sorrow, everything, you can't leave anything out. This will be the bridge that will allow us to cross and go back in time."**

 

"This jutsu, what's the risk to it, if it doesn't work?" Sasuke asked. 

 

Kurama was silent as he thought it over, he looked back down to the them as they waited his answer, he smiled,  **"it would be better to make sure this works, than to ask what if."**

 

Seeing that they would get no other answer from the chakra mass of a fox, the three followed Kurama's instructions and remembered, he told them the handsigns that they would need to do. As they focused on their memories of their lost friends and family, Kurama sighed, he really hoped that this would work. In not time at all, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kurama started to glow a bright yellow-y orange color before the brightness of the jutsu overwhelmed their eyes and they could no longer see. A sharp pain ran through their body's, it spreed all over and intensified until they couldn't held back their screams any longer. "Wha-wha-what's happening t-to us?" Asked Naruto.

 

 **"This is part of the process, you're being brought back to your younger body's within the time I chose for you. Try not to think about it too much and keep focusing on what I told you to do,"** Kurama ordered with his eyes closed, deep in thought. The trio did their best to focus, but the pain was still there, like an ever present thing that was just waiting to take over their senses until it was the only thing that they could ever feel. Thankfully, that didn't happen, slowly the pain subsided until it was only a dull reminder of their experiences of their own past, the ache of their bodies slowly lulled them to sleep. Kurama opened his eyes and looked down at the three, instead of seeing the scared seventeen and eighteen year old's of a war ravaged wasteland of the future, but instead, three four year old's, as innocent as snow.  **"Rest well, you're going to need it."**


	2. A new day begins with a bang

Upon waking up, Naruto opened his yes, he hadn't thought he would feel this dizzy when the jutsu was preformed, but then again, he didn't think that the jutsu would work. Now that he thought about it, they didn't really hesitate, not really, they were doubtful, but that was it. Now that he was awake, he saw how dark it was, h guessed that they were still back where they were and got up. He could feel that Sasuke and Shikamaru were the ones that was curled up next to him, it was odd, something felt off. He wasn't sure what that was and decided to ask if the others could sense it as well, either when they woke up, or when the sun came up. He used his sense to find the nearest source of running water and headed over to it, he bumped into a wall on the way, he thought that was odd, but then again, there still a lot of walls left standing after the war, so he thought nothing of it. Following the wall, he made his way to the water source, he sensed that it was right in front of him, so he reached out his hands to scoop up some, but came up empty. "Huh?" He put his hand down, trying to feel where the river ended and the water began, but then he bumped his head on something, "ouch," he rubbed his head, "what the hell's going on here?" He wondered to himself, then he noticed that the floor under his feet was wood, it was weird. After the attack, any wood surface that was left behind was turned into burnt out old firewood that still retained some of the heat from the attack, it would be hottest during the day, but at night it would cool down a little to be just bare able under their feet. Putting two and two together, Naruto stood up and reached for the wall that he used to lead him here, when he found it, he searched it until he found what he was looking for and turned on the light. The sudden bust of light hurt his eyes, since the war started, the night had been led by candle light and water battery powered light source that they came across that still worked, it was never as bright as this.

 

Going back to the mirror, Naruto looked into it with wide eyes, he stared into eyes that was as bright blue as a clear sea. His hair was slightly more yellow than it had been, after all, when you're fighting twenty four hours of the day for weeks and months at a time with out much of a break in between, well you get the point. Anyways, Naruto could see that he looked a little bit cleaner than what he used to look like, which made him a little happy at least. He looked down at himself, he was small, his hands looked like they belonged to a baby,  _"was I really ever that small?"_ He wondered to himself, he turned to his left and saw a shower, he gasped and went straight for it, trying his best to reach the knobs without slipping on his face in the process. When he managed to reach it, the water came out of the shower head like a shock, it was cold, but it still felt nice to have a shower again. He basked in the feel of the water as it landed on his head and slid down his body, he closed his eyes so he could become lost in the feeling of the water, it slowly started to warm up, which was good, it had stayed cold for much longer, he wouldn't have been able to stand it. He heard a noise come from the door, slightly startled, he looked over and relaxed, it was only his brothers, he smiled at them, "I guess we did it, huh guys? It actually worked." 

 

Sasuke, the one who had made the noise, walked up to the tube/shower, he held his hand out to catch some of the water, "it's really. So this means, we really made it back?" 

 

Naruto shrugged as Shikamaru slowly walked into the bathroom too, wordlessly, he climbed into the tub. Naruto let him get under the water next, Shikamaru used the water to clean his face, when he felt that it was clean enough, he turned back to the other two "Do either of you know where we are? How older we are?" He asked, the two shook their heads, he sighed, "when, judging by how small we all look, I would say we may be close to about three or four, at the most, five. Another thing, we need to make sure we have a backstory to tell people in case they start asking questions."

 

 **"Ah, Shikamaru, it seems like you're back to your old self again, hm,"** came another voice by the door. The all looked over to see Kurama standing there in a smaller version of himself, maybe about the size of a large German Shepard or some other big dog.  **"You all do, that's good,"** he said as he walked over to sit by the tub/shower.

 

Once the trio finally processed that this, in fact, was Kurama, the nine tailed fox, the one that was supposed to be living inside of Naruto, they freaked out. "KURAMA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING OUT OF YOUR SEAL!" The three of them screamed at once, by the time that Kurama arrived in the bathroom, Sasuke had found his way into the tub and had gotten under the water as well. 

 

Kurama gave them a foxy grin,  **"yep it's me, missed me or what?"**

 

Naruto was the first to break out of his shock, "wait, if that's really you out here, then how am I still alive?!"

 

"Ack, he's right, I thought that all jinturiki was supposed to have their bjuu inside them or else they would die! How are you even here?" Sasuke asked, he was a little panicked about his friend dying, after all that they had lost, if Naruto or Shikamaru kicked the bucket, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't last the night.

 

Shikamaru observed Kurama's form for a second, slightly more calm than the others, "and why are you the size of a small horse?" 

 

"Ah, now that you mention it, he kinda looks like a small horse too," Naruto noted, Sasuke nodded his agreement.

 

Kurama got a tick mark on his temple, **"hay, shut up, I just brought you miserable ingrates back from thirteen years in the future and that's the thanks I get? Being insulted and being compared to a tiny horse!? Where are you damn manner you brats!"** With that, Kurama jumped into the air, spun around, and used three out of his nine tails to slap the three boys in the face, before landing in the same spot again,  **"hmph, I'd like to see a tiny horse do that."**

 

The boys rubbed their cheeks, "well, at least it didn't hurt as much as it would have if he was his bigger form, so that's a relieve," said Naruto.

 

Shikamaru sighed, "what a drag, I'm just going to get cleaned up and go back to bed, it's too soon to be doing all of this." He said and started stripping off his clothes, then set the water to a warmer setting.

 

Naruto shrugged and took off his clothes too, same as Sasuke, Naruto looked over to him and noticed that he still had only one arm. He also noticed that all the burn marks were still there, he looked over at Shikamaru, he saw that his scars were still there too, so was his own. He looked up at Kurama who was watching them broadly, "oi, Kurama, what time did you send us back to?"

 

Kurama yawned,  **"hm? Oh, to when you were four, wasn't that obvious?"**

 

"Why so far back?" Sasuke asked.

 

 **"Isn't it obvious? If you come back when your four, then that means that everyone you know is still alive, for one, and two, you can prevent the start of major deaths, two. Simply put, it was the most logical way to set up everything, I couldn't take you back too far because you would either forget everything that happened in the future, or you would not exist any more. Anymore questions?"** Kurama asked in his usual sassy way that they all knew him for during the war. 

 

"How come we still have all of these scars?" Shikamaru asked, "I mean don't get me wrong or anything, I don't mind them, but I didn't have any scars on me when I was four last time, and neither did Saskue. I don't know about Naruto though."

 

The two turned to the blond, he chuckled nervously under their intense glares, Kurama cleared his throat.  **"Well that's just one of the side effects of this jutsu, going back to far, like say to when you were one, you would have lost most of your memories of that time, and would have to wait up until now to get them all back. Most likely, they would came to you in dreams, and not a whole lot of people tend to thin much of their dreams when they wake up, for all you know it could be a warning, but whatever. Anyway, as for your scars, wellllll.....when you time travel back to the past, are you really focused on what you look like at the time? Because then the jutsu would have been more difficult to do, so a few scars here and there isn't too bad, right?"**

 

"A few scars? Are your eyes working fox? We have all of our scars from the war, Sasuke's still missing an arm, Shikamaru's legs look like he's just  _come from_ battle, and you can clearly see the scar that ass-hole ripped through my arm and chest to get to these two." Naruto ranted, "What's worse is that if anyone from this time sees these scars, then they'll more than likely ask us how, why, where, and who gave these to us!"

 

Shikamaru gasped, "we we're going to need to pin this on someone, someone that is not alive in this time or at least make up a story that's so believable that no one could argue it's truth. I can't imagine my parents accepting a lie like, 'I tripped' or something, she'd kill me!"

 

A dark storm cloud came over Saskue as he crouched down in one corner of the tube, "since I'm still four, my clan is still alive, and if that's true, my dad and everyone else is still the same as last time. I can't go back home without an arm, Itachi will never let me leave the house alone ever again. I may not even become a ninja this time," he mopped, Shikamaru soon joined him, together they mopped about what their parent and clansmen would do when and if they were to see their loss of limbs and scars. The biggest scars ever, and they were supposed to be only four.

 

Kurama sweat dropped,  **"Like I said, I couldn't help the scars, and limbs can't grow back once it's lost."** He stated to the two mopping boys, which earned him a bigger storm cloud over their heads, plus thunder and lightening, he sighed,  **"but, you three will just have to come up with really, really good stories, plus you will need evidence to say what really happened, happened. Got it?"**

 

By this point, Naruto had finished with his shower and was already out of the tub looking for dry, clean clothes. The other two took turns washing up before doing the same. They were able to find cloths that fit them, they were three sizes too big, but it was better than nothing. The three then went back to the spot they woke up from and went back to sleep once Kurama joined them, after all that talking, they were still tired from their time traveling adventure and was ready to fall into a deep sleep around Kurama, which the fox did not mind at all.

* * *

 

 

Later on, when the trio woke up, they saw that they were in what looked to be an abandoned apartment somewhere. The windows where boarded up in a way that barely any light came through. They slowly got up and stretched, they looked looked around the apartment to find find some food, they were lucky enough to find some cup ramen that was still up to date, they warmed up some water using a small fire jutsu from Sasuke. It seemed that some of their abilities had come back with them, they didn't know how much of their abilities had came with them, but they would soon find out. After they were done eating, Naruto spoke up, "okay, since we're all thinking about it, I might as well asked, what's the story that we're going with to explain all this?" He gestured to their scars, "it has to be something fool proof and something that we can prove as well."

 

Sasuke nodded his agreement, "it has to be something that will also pull on their emotions too, I've learned that emotion make people do a lot of crazy things. Maybe if we make the facts believable enough, they won't find fault with it."

 

"We also have to make sure that the story matches up perfectly, not too perfectly, but close enough that it could be taken to court for any reason." Shikamaru added, "we all have to know the story, if just one of us gives deatil that doesn't match up with any part of the story we come up with, it's game over."

 

"Maybe we should pick a place within the village, we can't say that it happened outside the village, because there are guards at the gate. Who would miss a couple of four year old's trying to sneak out the village late at night?"

 

The three boys thought of more things to add to the list to make sure that they followed up with each other, the next step was to actually come up with an actual story. "We could say it happened at a night club, maybe? One that's located in the bad part of town, do any of you remember any clubs like that?"

 

Naruto thought for a while, while Shikamaru shook his head, "there is one," he said with his eyes closed

 

"Really?" The two asked.

 

Naruto asked, "hm mmh, I heard about it when I was ten, it's called the Salty Pineapple, it's supposed to be a really, really bad place on the bad side of the village. I heard the third Hokage once say that it used to belong to a rich guy named, Kobiyama, the guy who used to own nearly half the clubs in Konoha. Rumor has it that he handed it over to his son, Yamcha, before he died. Ever since then, the place has been getting bad news since his son was known to be in some gangs after he failed the chunin exams for the third time in a row. It's said that people from murders to rapist and kidnappers went to hang out and do business there, there's no place worse than that one."

 

"Whoa, I think I've head my dad say something about that place once," Sasuke said, "when he was a kid, my dad used to go to work with my grandfather. There were some reports about the place that dad was able to read about when he got older, seems like there's been quite a few murders around the place. Any witness that came forth was found missing  the next day, so none of the cases went to court, and no one was caught for them."

 

"Hmmmm," Naruto thought.

 

"What are you thinking Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Naruto smiled, "guys, we just found our place, and our story, if this works out, we're so going to kill two bird with one stone. Maybe even three."

 

Shikmaru looked at Naruto with a thoughtful look, "what's the third one?"

 

Naruto gave them a grin, "the first would be our backstory, the second would be putting major suspicion on that that place. And the third may just be catching and bring the murderess to justice after all this time. Are you guys with me?"

 

Sasuke and Shikamaru laughed, "yeah!" 

 

"Alight, now lets start planning, we need start setting things up as soon as we can," Naruto cheered as he got up from the ground.

* * *

 

 

Three weeks later, Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru found themselves exiting an abandoned apartment located on the bad part of town. They limped every few steps they toom, but still managed to make it down the stairs quietly without being seen. They had taken these three weeks to see how much of their powers had come back with them. When found that the only thing that didn't make it back with them was just their height and their chakra stores, they made a pact to get them back. While they were doing what they had to to get themselves to at least a quarter of their power that they had during the war, they made clones to got out at night to track down food. They also made clones to do the most important job of all, the one that would help out their story the most, Naruto, since he still had the most chakra out of the three, then he was able to send out his clones for longer to make sure that the soon to be 'scene of the crime' was all set. Also, on the last night of them being at the apartment, they decided to go out and further add evidence to their story, not that it wan't believable all ready, but it was something that Shikamaru and Sasuke had talked Naruto into doing themselves. Kurama didn't like the idea, but he had to go along with it seeing as how Sasuke and Shikamaru both gave reason that they should do this.The plan went as follows, Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru would leave the apartment when it was getting dark, they would make some clones that would be seen walking around the village, side by side. Then a 'stranger' would jump out of the no where and take the three away somewhere under the cover of some smoke bombs. While the real Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke would be somewhere else. Shikamaru and Sasuke would henge into some random faces in the crowd while Naruto, after getting his clothes dirty and looked the part that they need him to, would run into the crowded part of the village. Naruto would get sported running around and would no doubt get captured by the villagers, who would soon start doing the usual treatment of their future seventh Hokage. After a few of the villagers get a few kicks and punches in, Shikamaru and Sasuke would jump in and 'save' Naruto, but it would look like they were apart of the crowd that wants to beat him up. They'll make it look like they're going to take Naruto for themselves and continue the crowds work, but they would really be going back to the abandoned apartment. This plan did, to some degree, go as plan, but for one thing, they didn't have enough chakra to keep the jutsu up for long before it fell and they were found out. All three were beaten up by some of the villagers for being a 'demon lover' and were hit with stones and rocks, not to mention other damaging objects. Something else that also didn't go according to plan was Fugaku and Shikaku showing after seeing a glimpse of their children that was supposedly missing, when Fugaku and Shikaku rushed into the crowd to see if it was really their children, shouting profanity at the crowd as they went. It was all the distraction they needed to for the three of them to do one last jutsu, a shushin that would transport them to the abandoned apartment so they could rest for a while. 

 

Sasuke, Naruto, and Shikamaru all rested in the apartment for the rest of the night and most of the last day, by the time they were ready to leave, it was high noon and they were starving. They ran out of food the previous morning and was supposed to get some on their way back that night. However, since the plan didn't work out they way it should have, then that meant today they were starving. Something else that they didn't plan on was Kurama, it turns out that the reason for him being the size or a large dog or a tiny horse, was because he didn't have much of his chakra from before the jump through time. He was really lucky to just be stuck in this form until the rest of his chakra could be recovered, if he expends too much chakra in his current state, he would be lucky to retain his form as fox.  **"Since it would take abut ten or so years for me to come back if I was to die, the it would take me about...hmm, I don't know, four or five years to get back to my natural form. Also, I don't know why, but since the jump, I haven't been able to go back into the seal, it's almost like I'm being blocked or something."**

 

"Maybe the seal doesn't recognize you in your current state," Shikamaru stated simply as they clung to the shadows while walking through the village. 

 

**"Hmm, maybe, but we'll figure that out late. Since I'm not in the seal, I can't heal Naruto as fast as I would, while I'm out, it seems to go much slower."**

 

"Eh, don't beat yourself up so much, Kurama, it isn't your fault anyways." Naruto half heartedly at his two friends that he thought of as brothers, "you didn't ask me to get beat up by a mob full of idiots, when we could have gotten food instead after faking the kidnapping thing instead." He grumbled as the other two looked away and began to whistle softly, he sighed, "anyways, these little bumps and bruises don't bother me half as much as our scars did when we got 'em, so this i fine."

 

"Yeah, he's right, but man do I wish we could have fought back a little more back then. I would have loved to kick all of their asses for doing what they did to you," Sasuke raged.

 

"Same here, but that was back then, this is now." He turned and found that they would reach the Nara compound shortly, he turned back to the others, "is everyone clear on the plan? We should go over it one last time before we get there so we don't mess up anything."

 

"Right, I was the first they grabbed, then Sasuke and you. We agreed on the Salty Pineapple, so there'es no issue there, right?" Naruto asked, the other shook their head, "good, after a while they do stuff to us, we fight back every so often, and then at some point we escape. Am I missing anything?"

 

Sasuke shook his head, "we escape by means of survival instinct, then we run until we make it all the way here."

 

"Right, I think that's everything, let's get going," Shikamaru said as they started walking again."

 

 **"Uh guys, I think you forgot about something,"** Kurama said.

 

Naruto shook his head, "I don't think we did, the kidnapping, the Salty Pineapple, fighting to survive, escape and then run to the Nara compound." He ticked off on his fingers, "what are we missing?"

 

Kurama rolled his eyes,  **"me you baka's!** **"** He hissed at them while bonking them on the head each with his tail, **"how are you going to explain a three foot tall talking Kitsune following you into the house?"**

 

The three rubbed the tops of their heads again, "oh man, what a drag, I keep forgetting that you're not just inside Narut's head talking to us through the link anymore, troublsome."

 

"Ah don;t worry about it, I forgot too," Naruto said with a sigh, "may, how do we explain you to them. It's not like they'll welcome you with open arms just like that."

 

"Just say we found him while we were there and be done with it," Sasuke said in a board tone.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "whatever Sasuke, jeez you can be so-" but whatever he was going to say was cut off when they sensed someone heading their way. "Come on, we've stayed here long enough, let's move."

 

"Right," Sasuke and shikamaru said without hesitation and started running, but even though they were running quicker than normal four year old's their legs were still short. Since they were're used to being so short, they would sometimes tumble or trip as they ran, Kurama was thankfully big enough to fit all of them on his back and too of even faster than they were running before.

 

 **"You three can than me with the celebratory dinner in my honor with some beers,"** he boasted as he picked up the pace. The trio took not of his request and thought it sounded good themselves, if they made it through all of this without getting caught, then that was something they would definitely have to do. The Nara compound came into side just as some of the villagers spotted them from a distance, some yelled out to them in anger and some tried chasing them, seemingly too blinded by rage to see where they were heading until it was too late.  **"You three better start crying, because I'm busting through the side window in one minute,"** the kitsune warned them as he ran around the side, the mob following them closely,  **"here we go!"** Just like that, Kurama leaped into the air, the boy's brace themselves for impact.

 

....................................

Shikaku was like any other normal human being, on the day that his son was supposed to be in his room lazing about like always, he wasn't. Shikaku found this out when he went up to his son's room after his wife, Yoshino, allowed his face to make out with her trusted frying pan for the first time that day, so he just had to go get his son up to eat breakfast. Although he wasn't fond of being hit with a frying pan every time he didn't want to do something, he still felt some sort of love for his wife, and thus did what she asked. Or maybe it was the fact that they hadn't done it in a while and he was hoping that this would help in that department, but he couldn't be sure, Yoshino was a troublesome woman, if it wasn't for the council demanding him to have an heir, he might not even have a family right now. But who knows, anyways, when he finally reached the second floor and stood in front of his son's door that morning, he could feel something off, he couldn't sense Shikamaru's chakra. Sure his stores were small still and that made him a little hard to sense sometimes, but still, he would now if he was there, but thinking that his son was still asleep and his stores weren't active, he went through with waking his son. He called out to him once, twice, on the third time he opened the door and went inside the room, that's when he, Shikaku Nara, head of the Nara clan, and the man that was known to be lazy, level headed strategist to the Hokage; freaked the fuck out. He ran all over the room looking for his one and only lazy son, he wasn't sure if he had screamed his head off back then, but his head did feel like a bad house what with all the worrying and questions on where his son was, ah his son, his pride and joy. He knew, with out a doubt in his mind, that Shikamaru would one day take over his position and that he could one day become a proud father and grandfather because of his son. But when he was run running all over the house looking for his son, he calmed down enough to see that he wasn't there, he knew that this behavior was very unNara like, but he couldn't help him. If it wasn't for Shikamaru, Shikaku might have left Yoshino after she almost gave him a contusion for not getting one percent (1%) instead of two percent milk (2%).

 

After that day, and the three weeks that followed, Shikaku's mind was a bit clouded. He went to the Hokage tower the second he calmed down enough and found that Fukagu there waiting to see the Hokage too. To calm himself down, he tried to calm himself down, he started a conversation with the Uchiha head and came to find out that Sasuke was missing as well, upon them finding out that each other's kid was missing, the formulated theory after theory on where they could have gone. They both used all their resources to try and find out where their boys had gone, Shikaku worried greatly for his son, for Sasuke too, it was odd that they both go missing on the same day. What was more odd was that Naruto Uzumaki, was also said to have gone missing as well, he found that out by talking to the Hokage one day when he saw that he was unfocused during a council meeting. He couldn't blame him, he himself would he seen sleeping through the meetings, but since his son went missing, he could barely sleep for half and hour. The weeks went by like white noise in the back ground until one day before today, he was walking through the village trying to clear his head after another search came up empty for all three boys, he bumped into Fugaku and Itachi, who seemed to have found out about hi missing brother after he came back from the academy. Since then, Itachi had been using all of his free time to look for his little brother along side his dad, but on that night, Fugaku noticed something off to the side, Shikaku, being the curious guy he was, turned to where his gaze was and thought he saw a glimpse of a pineapple head and blond hair. Their thinking was that if one was found, then the other would be close by, or they would probably all be together or something, so they rushed over to the crowd, asking them not so nicely to let them through. But by the time they got another glimpse at the boys, it was just in time to see them go up in smoke, heart broken and angry, they turned to the ground to get any information they could. Turns out that the crowd had seen Naruto and was accusing Shikamaru and Sasuke to be 'demon lover'.

 

This did not bod well for the crowd when they realized that Fugaku was also there, but before either adult could do anything to the civilian fools, Itachi stepped in. Since he wasn't a full ninja yet, only a trial genin, he was still legally a civilian and could, therefor, beat the living shit out of them if he wanted to. However, he didn't, instead he activated his Sharingon to put crowd under the worst genjutsu that he could think off. The three split up and went their separate ways, to continue the search for their son/brother on their own, working lae into the night until they passed out. Which is where we find Shikaku the very next day. Because he was still unable to fall asleep regularly, Yoshino secretly placed sleeping pills in his tea before giving it to him that night, so he went to sleep around some time past midnight once he rewarmed the tea and finally drank it. He slept for most of the day, so when he awoke to the sound of breaking glass and something falling on top of him, he was fully awake within seconds. As he opened his eyes to get a better look at what feel on top of him, he could see, three things. One, a whole lot of orange-y red fur, two, three children on top of the red furry thing, and then finally, a mob outside his window who was still yelling at the children and furry thing on top of him. Having had enough of all the noise, he first got the thing, whatever it was, off of him, and glared at the crowd, once they figured out who it was, they got really quite and waited for Shikaku to speak.

 

"If you all don't want to become target dummies in the next five seconds, you will leave this compound and never come back here again unless invited my one of our members or me personally." Shikaku said in a dark, but still very calm, voice, "five...." the crowd ran out of the compound so fast that they could have been ninjas. "Now then, let's see what we have here," he said as he turned towards the thing, or things, that fell upon him and rudely awoke him from his much needed sleep. He yawned as he turned around rubbing his neck, his neck, "man, what else did she put in my tea last night? My head feels like Kiri in the rainy season." He cracked his neck back into place and rolled his shoulders until they felt normal again, then he looked down at the intruders who had yet to speak yet, "we-" he was cut off when he saw who it was that landed upon him just a few second earlier. There was a large fox, larger than any normal fox he had seen before, with that fox was a little blond with whiskered cheeks and bright blond hair, no doubt about who that was. Next to the blond was a raven haired, his hair took the shape or a ducks rear end, his eyes matched the color of his hair, there was no doubt about who this boy was either, these two were Sasuke and Naruto, the jinturiki and second son to the Uchiha clan head. "If that's them, then...." his eyes quickly seared for the third person he had saw land with the fox and the other two boys, but all he saw was the fox, the two boys, and a spiky pony tail sticking out from over the other side of the fox. Shikaku internally gasped and held his breath as he slowly walked around the other side of the fox, "S-S-Sh-Shikamaru, i-is that r-real-lly y-you?" Shikaku found himself saying as he got an eye full of his missing son, he stopped in front of the third boy, said boy turned his head from where it was bared in the side of the fox and glanced up at him with teary eyes. Shikaku fell to his knees, "it really is you, right, you're here, I'm not dreaming, am I?"

 

Shikamaru looked up at his dad and his eyes got blurry, "dad?" 

 

 

To be continued.......


	3. Lost but found, let the past begin

Naruto and Sasuke watched as a father and son were reunited, it was odd seeing Shikaku alive and well again. Especially since they all saw when Madara plunged his hand into his chest and ripped out his heart right in front of them before destroying the communication tower. Shikamaru got up on shaky legs as he stared into his father's eyes, the tears build up in his eyes and threatened to fall, but he turned away before they could. So much emotion, it all came rushing at him all at once, he wasn't sure he could stand being back here in this time with all the people they lost, without breaking down every time he saw someone they lost. It hurt, it hurt so much that he couldn't stand it and turned away completely from his dad, he couldn't bare to look at his face any longer, it was just so alive, but it also clashed with the image he still had of seeing his father get his heart ripped from his chest in a shower of blood. It was just too much for him, he didn't look at him. "H-h-hay d-d-da-dad," Shikamaru stuttered out, not knowing what else to say.

 

Shikaku on the other had was just barely able to keep himself from bawling his eyes out like a child as he looked upon his son. After all this time, he thought that he was kidnapped, or murdered by an enemy ninja while the village slept. But here he was, his son, alive and well. At this point he couldn't take it any more. Stepped forward and scooped up his son into his arms, giving him a light squeeze as he hugged his son close to his body,"I've missed you so much, son."

* * *

 (Time skip over the mushy reunion)

 

Shikaku now sat across from Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke, as Kurama, sat on the floor. Yoshino wasn't home yet, he couln't imagine where she could have gone, but didn't feel like getting up to find her at the moment. As Shikaku was able to calm himself down over the fact that his son, that was assumed missing for three weeks, and was  _not_ dead, he came to notice a few things. One, Shikamaru was pale, even though Shikamaru's skin usually looked as pure as the purest think you could imagine, Shikaku could tell that his skin had gotten much, much lighter some how. It was almost as if he was stuck in doors for years and years without seeing the light of day for a while, unbeknownst to him, that was very much the case when it came to the war after Shikaku died in the second year. When Shikaku looked to the boys next to his son, he could tell right away who they were, he had to be knowledgeable about the village's jinchuriky in case something happened to him and he was kidnapped by another village for power reason, he noted that the Uchiha clan head's youngest son was the last boy there. He had no idea who the fox was. Making an observation, he could tell that there was something different about these three boys, the fact that his son actually broke down crying was a hint, because Shikamaru never cried, not really anyways, even when he was born, he was an odd kid that way. Anyways, Shikaku sighed and lead forward in his chair, "I'm not sure what this will accomplish, I might fall down because of it, but I need to know," he said in a serious voice as he staired deep within the three's eyes, "what happened?" 

 

The three boys before him looked at each other, they had a look on their faces that spelled worry and fear, and something else that Shikaku could just barely see. Once their silent conversation was over, Naruto spoke up, "we would tell you, but, we don't want you to be ashamed of us," Naruto said in a weak voice. He was a great actor when he wanted to be.

 

"Hm? Why's that? I would never be ashamed of you three," Shikaku answered. "It's true that I only just met you two, and all, but still, you're only four years old right? What could you three possibly have done to be ashamed of?" 

 

Sasuke spoke up next, a serious look on his face, "you have seen thinks no one should see, we were forced to do things too. But, there was nothing worst than what just happened, where we came from."

 

Now Shikaku was on the edge of his seat, he couldn't stop himself from wondering, _what could they have seen in three weeks that would have made them think this way?_ He thought to himself, "I can promise you three right now, I will not judge you, if it was by force, then you have nothing to worry about. They, whoever they are, forced you to do things that you didn't want to do, it's not your fault."

 

Shikamaru looked up at his dad then, "how can you say that! We were forced to do it, but still, we did it! How could you even say that it's not our fault? How can you say that we're not equally guilty, if not more?" 

 

Shikaku was really curious on what they were talking about, he was trying to tell them that whatever it was that they did was not their fault. But how could he keep doing that when he had no idea what they did? He needed information, he had to know what the problem was, so that he could help them heal from it. "How about you guys tell me what you did that made you feel so guilty in the first place? I will not judge you, it's not in my nature to judge anyone, so please, won't you tell me?"

 

The three boys shared another glans at each other, they nodded before looked at Shikaku, "we'll only tell you if you take us to the Hokage first," Shikamaru exclaimed.

 

"Yea, and it has to be a privet meetin' no eavesdroppers allowed," Naruto said messing up the word 'eavesdroppers'.

 

Shikaku nodded, "very well then, I can do that," he said and got up from his seat. He smiled at the boys, "would you three like something to eat on the way there? I'm sure after all you've been through, you three must be starving by now, am I right?" Just then three hungry bellies could be heard and the blushing boys were seen, after all this time, they had forgotten that they hadn't eaten since the night before. He chuckled, "thought so, well, maybe on the way, we can get some ramen at Ichiraku ramens, I hear they're pretty good," he said as he picked up his son with one arm, Sasuke with the other, and Naruto got up and stood next to him. "You guys hold on tight, you too Naruto, I'm going to shushin to Ichiraku's before we head to the Hokage tower," Naruto nodded and hugged the older Nara's leg tight. Shikaku shushined them to the famous ramen stall and ordered the boys enough food to fill their bellies, surprisingly, Naruto only ate five bowls, while Shikamaru and Sasuke only had about two or three. When they were done, he paid the owner and left with them to start heading to the tower, but when they were half way there, he noticed that people were staring in their direction. He looked to see people glaring at Naruto, he noticed that Sasuke and Shikamaru noticed this too,  _I guess you would have to be a blind bat to not notice a crowd of people staring at you for this long right? But still, they're four and they notice this, could it be that they know about Naruto holding the Kyuubi within himself, and they are fine with it? Even so, when would they have found that out? While they were still missing maybe, it would make sense, but then again, if they know, and they aren't treating him like the rest of the village, is there hope for the other children if their generation? Hmmm......_ As Shikaku wondered this, he didn't realize that they had entered the tower and had made their way up to the Hokage's office until the receptionist tried, key word 'tried', to throw a stapler at the blond. 

 

"Uggg, what is that thing doing here, it's not healthy to be so close to these two disgusting things at once!" She yelled at Naruto and Kurama.

 

Naruto was unfazed by her comment, but Kurama still growled at the pathetic woman, even though it's been years since Naruto got this level of disrespect from someone, he still didn't like it. In the future, people view of Naruto didn't really change much, after Pain's attack on the village, he was praised for saving them, but there were still some old people that didn't like him. They kept out of his way though, and he was fine with that, he even became the seventh Hokage while on the battle field, but he never was able to get his face in the kage mountain, since it was destroyed and all. Plus there was no one there to do the job of carving his face into the thing anyways. Looking up at the woman, he noticed that she was one of the old people that still didn't like him even after saving the village from Pain, but he guessed he could understand why that was, not because he was a monster, but because after the Kyuubi attack, she found out that she could no longer have children, not because of the attack, but because her genies. And her husband died a year before the attack, so she just needed someone to blame for it all. He wasn't okay with it, but he let it slide.....this time. "We're here to see the Hokage," he said as he put the stapler back on her desk after catching it earlier.

 

"No way! The Hokage doesn't need to be bothered by the likes of you, or that-that-that thing!" She explained hotly, "and don't you know that foxes are illegal here anyways? I suppose you wouldn't since you're a de-"

 

Shikaku cleared his throat, "you must have lost you mind at some point before we got here, so I'm just going to tell the Hokage that you're not feeling well. I'm sure he wouldn't want you working if you're ill, isn't that right, Hokage-sama?" 

 

As he spoke, the resection woman started to pale in color until she was drained of it, she turned around slowly to the supposed close door, only to find it open. There stood the Hokage, glaring at her with in tent to kill, "I believe Shikaku-san has a point. Marina-san, why don't you take the rest of the week off? In fact, I'll give you as much time of as you need until you get rid of that nasty head cold you seem to have developed, you can come back in when you're feeling better."The third said in a tone that told her that she was no longer welcomed back here, she quickly gathered up her things without a another word and left the tower, but not before sending Naruto a heated glare. Once she was gone, Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled at Shikaku and the three boys, "please, do come on in." 

 

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Shikaku stated as he ushered the three boys and one fox into the kage's office

 

When everyone was seated, Hiruzen smiled brightly at Seeing Naruto, he was worried about him since he was told that he went missing. Now that he was found, he was less worried now, "so," he turned to Shikaku," what can I do for you today?" He asked.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED.............


	4. The Salty Pineapple

(I forgot what age I said they were, I think it was four or five, but I'll check to make sure later, on with the story!)

* * *

Naruto turned to the other two boy with him, a nervous look on his face, he saw equally nervous looks on the other two boy's face, with just a hint of fear in their eyes.  _'Good, everything's going according to plan, I just hope that the clones are able to get everything else ready in time in case the old man send out ANBU to verify our story. We need to be ready for that time, another half day should do it, hopefully....."_ the blond thought as he listened to Shikaku explain what happened earlier that day.

 

"Well, you see, Hokage-sama, last night Yoshino had given me some tea that was spiked with some heavy sleeping sedatives." The older Nara explained, "it seems that she really wanted me to get some rest, so she knocked me out with that, I'm not sure how long I was out for, but by the looks of it, it was almost half the day."

 

Hiruzen nodded, "yes, I see, well they didn't call Yoshino the 'Brew Master' for nothing," he chuckled, "go on."

 

Shikaku nodded, "anyways, while I was still sleeping, I heard a loud crash, I opened my eyes to see a giant fox, and three kids crashing through my living room window and fly in the air. They ended up landing on top of me, by the time my mind caught up with what was happening, I was staring at these two." He gestured to Naruto and Sasuke, "and the fox, I also saw a spiky pony tail hiding behind the fox, that pony tail turned out to be my son," he smiled at that and looked down to Shikamaru, he was truly happy that his son was home. He also couldn't wait to get his hand on the basterds who tried to take away his son from him, the Nara head internally smirked, yes, who ever it was that kidnapped his son was going to wish for death three times over when he was through with them, even Ibiki wouldn't be able to match his sadistic fantasy of ripping those idiots apart. 

 

Meanwhile, Hiruzen was having the same thoughts as Shikaku, only he was looking to make a game out of it, he decided to call it the 'scream for your lives' game. Even though such a game was only played one time some years back when Naruto was just turning one and some of the villagers tried to assassinate the defenseless blond so young. Needless to say, the 'scream for your live' game became forbidden after that night, and those villagers were never seen or heard from again. Hiruzen shook himself out of his sadistic thoughts of the past came, and focused on the present, he had plenty of time to find whoever the culprit was and make them scream their hearts out, but before that could take place, he needed to know if his grandson, in everything but blood, was alright. "So, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, would you mind telling me what happened to you three for those three weeks that you were gone?" He asked as he got up from his chair behind his desk and walked around until he was knelt before the three boys, but they were hesitant.

 

Naruto's eyes darted towards the corners of the office, Hiruzen was amazed when the blond asked him, "could you ask those meanies to leave too, please? I don't want them to tell anyone what we said to you, jiji," spoke the little 'five year old' in a timid voice while the other two nodded their heads.

 

 

Hiruzen nodded and made a motion that told the ANBU to leave the room, once they were gone, he smiled softly at Naruto and the other two boys."There, they are gone now, you can tell me everything that happened, but only if you feel comfortable doing so, alright?" He asked gently as he reached out his hand and ruffled Naruto's bright yellow hair, "I can promise you that you three are safe here with me and Shikaku." Shikaku pulled up some chairs for the boys, Hiruzen, and then himself so they wouldn't need to sit on the floor. When everyone was seated, he said, "whenever you guys feel comfortable, you can begin."

 

Naruto looked at the other three again, the trio were doing a grate job of acting the part of a scared kidnapping victims. However, the story that they were about to tell will get much, much darker as it's told, Sasuke decided to start things off, "it all started when I....tripped...."

* * *

 

 

Later on that same day, after the boys told at least half of their story and put up an act so grate that not even the greatest spy detector and actor would have known that they just lied through their teeth. They lied to the head of the ANBU and Jonin commander, who was also the clan head of the Nara clan, and also the third Hokage, also known as the 'Kami of Shinobi'. They lied to them both, and they lied well. In detail, with soon-to-be evidence that would support their story at every turn (that is, if the clones were able to finish their jobs in time). To be honest, if the story wasn't so horrid, Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru would have patted themselves on the back for coming up with the story in the first place, Kurama was listening to the story and made sure that they told it exactly right, with the added explanation on how a giant fox, such as himself,came to be with them. By the end of the story, Shikaku was throwing up in a the Hokage's trashcan, and Hiruzen was in the middle of trying not to have a second heart attack from the story they both heard. An hour after the story, Shikaku was finished throwing up and was hugging the three boys for dear life...while crying out his apologies because of what they had been through. Meanwhile, Hiruzen was already at his desk filling out paper work to make sure that Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru were guarded like hawks until they could properly defend themselves. When Shikaku finally calmed down, he talked to the Hokage in a hushed tone, while Naruto and the others pretended to play with some building block, but in reality, they were listening to everyone that passed between the third and he current Nara clan head, this is what they heard.

 

 _"Hokage-sama, I don't know about you, but I think I would like to enroll my son in the academy a few years before the other kids in his generation. I think he should go so he could learn how to defend himself, Naruto too."_ Whispered Shikaku.

 

 _"I agree, we both know that you and I are too busy most days to teach them ourselves, even though I would like to take Naruto under my wing, all this damn paper work will get in the way of that. Hmmm....."_ Hiruzen paused, a thoughtful look on his face,  _"I wonder...."_

 

 _"What are you thinking, Hokage-sama?"_ Shikaku asked curiously. 

 

 _"It's about Naruto...."_ he started,  _"he's supposed to be living at the orphanage, but  when he went missing for those three weeks, I was still getting update about his well being. I even tried to go up there to see how he was doing myself, but the papers kept piling up even when I thought I had finished it all. And then you came in and told me that Naruto was missing all that time, but during those days, I also got pictures of him playing with other kids and smiling,"_ he rubbed his chin as he thought some more.  _"How could they take pictures of a person that isn't there? More importantly, when and why was Naruto and the others kidnapped?"_

 

Shikaku nodded his head,  _"yes while they told their story, they said that it had been dark enough that they couldn't see, it would make sense since that night was a moonless night and all."_ He got a look of realization in his eyes,  _"on a night like that, it would make anyone a perfect target for robbery, kidnapping, and who knows what else."_ He clenched his fist in anger, he was disgusted that any human being would do.... **that** , to just mere children,  _"and to think that that wasn't even the whole of their story."_

 

Hiruzen shook his head, "we need to bring in Fugaku, he must have heard the news by now that his son was found, unless the villagers were too blond to see the young lad walking with you earlier." He spoke up as he leaned back in his chair, feeling even older than his age, "I'm getting too old for this, I don't know how something like this could have happened, but it did and we're going to have to figure out a way to keep it from happening again to someone else's child." He picked up his phone and made a call, he talked to the person for not even a full minute before he was off the phone again, "he should be on the way any minute now.

 

At that moment, Sasuke tensed up, Naruto and Shikamaru knew why, "crap, guys, I don't want to see that man!" The little Uchiha hissed to his best friends who was also like brothers to him, the other two nodded.

 

"I know how you feel Sasuke, damn, we should have told them that we didn't him to come," Shikamaru growled lowly in his throat.

 

Naruto placed a hand on Shikamaru, "hay, none of that now, " the blond said calmly in his kage voice, "we can't let him see us like this. Remember, he was only after me and  Sasuke back in our timeline, but in this timeline, we can stop him from causing anymore damage than he already has. Remember the plan," he said as he sensed Shikaku coming near them, "act natural, he's coming."

 

The other two nodded before going back to playing with their blocks, pretending to build a tower out of blocks, when Shikaku spoke. "Would you three like anything to eat? I could go get food for you guys, or maybe call for a delivery?"

 

The trio looked up at him and shook their head, "no thanks, d-dad, we're fine," Shikamaru said, stuttering when he called the clan head 'dad. Why? Because death of his father still weighed heavily on his mind, even after all these years.

 

Shikaku nodded and walked back over to the Hokage, when he was out of hear shot, Naruto spoke in a low voice, "we're in for a long night guys. Thanks to our story, we've just set ourselves back by a lot, I didn't think that it was going to be that gruesome until I heard us talking about." He sighed, "I think the war did more damage to our minds than our bodies if that story didn't faze us, even when we were thinking it up."

 

"Hn, we're really messed up," Sasuke said in a whisper.

 

Just then the door to the office burst open and Fugaku Uchiha walked through it, surprisingly calm, though, if you looked closely, you could clearly  _feel_ how angry the man truly was. He walked all the way into the room, his eyes transfixed on the Hokage, "I want to know everything," he said. 

 

Hiruzen looked over to Shikaku, "would you mind taking the boys for something to eat? I don't want them to relive what they just told us just now." Shikaku nodded and wordlessly gathered up the boys, and the now awake fox (who woke up because of the door slamming open), before he lead them outside. While the boys were leaving the room, Fugaku noticed that Sasuke had what looked like a bed sheet hanging around him, he wanted to stop the boy and ask him why he had a bed sheet around his shoulders, but decided to leave it for later. When the boys were gone from the room, he turned back to Hiruzen who began t explain what he was told, it was after that, that the chef of police vowed to hunt down the culprits.

* * *

 

At the same time, Shikaku was walking with the three boys and the fox, who he came to know was named 'Kurama'. They weren't heading anywhere, they were simply just walking about, until Shikaku thought of something to ask, "where do you live, Naruto?" He asked, seemingly out of no where.

 

Naruto paused for a split second, he really wasn't expecting anyone to ask him that question, not anyone from this time anyways. "Uh, uhm," the blond looked around for an answer, "well, um, you see, I-I ah...." he gulped, in his mind he was freaking out a little, not because of the question, but because of the way his friends would react to the answer he would give them. He didn't know how to tell them the truth, so first he tired a lie, "um in the basement of the orphanage?" He said in a questioning way, he risked a peek at the others, Shikaku didn't seem to buy that lie, and Shikamaru and Sasuke gave him a deadpan loo, so the weren't going to accept it either. Naruto knew this and sighed, Kurama nudged him, as if it was his way of saying 'you have to tell them now', grumbling at the fox, he huffed, he knew that Shikamaru and Sasuke would be more than happy to knock him out once they hear his answer. "Alight, alright, fine, do you guys really want to know what happened?"

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "the question was asked so we could get answers, idiot."

 

"Just spill the beans, dobe, we don't have all day," Sasuke said. Naruto sighed, he looked up to Shikaku for help, but the man was also curious that he just looked back at the blond, awaiting his answer. The blond pouted, he mumbled something that the others couldn't hear, "what was that, speak clearly dobe," Sasuke growled.

 

Naruto groaned, "I said that I was kicked out when I was three and have been living in the ally and sewers since then!" He yelled before becoming quitter, he pushed his fingers together like a certain Hyuuga and continued, "sometimes I sleep in the dumpsters if it's raining and I can't find any other place that's dry, uh, but hay! It's not so bad, I get to seep anywhere and at anytime I want too! And I get first dibs on the leftovers at the restaurant on Tusdays and Sundays," he licked his lips, "the BBQ place is best one for leftovers on Wednesday, if you're lucky, you get to ha-" He was cut off when Sasuke and Shikamaru both punched him in the face.

 

"STOP TALKING LIKE IT'S A GOOD THING TO EAT OUT OF THE TRASH!!" They yelled in unison as Naruto flew up in the hair, "IT'S DISGUSTING!" 

 

Kurama shook his head but said nothing, he remembered those times when they had to eat out of the trash to live in the old timeline, it was so disgusting. But since Naruto had been doing it since he was three, his stomach became strong like iron so that he could eat just about anything. They both soon got used to the taste of dumpster food that it became natural to look in the trash food their next meal, sadly, this slowly built up into a habit and they soon started looking for just about everything they owned in the trash until after Naruto turned sixteen years old and saved the village from Pain. However, before then, when they were doing the sage training and Ma cooked up bugs for dinner, that was when Naruto realized that dumpster food and frog food were both disgusting and stuck firmly to Ichiraku's cooking from then on. But then the war came and Ichiraku's stand was one of the first places to go up in flames towards the end, Naruto and Kurama cried for months after that, with only the constant fighting to console them. Kurama sighed as he remembered the tragic even unfold, he vowed that, now that he was on the outside of Naruto's body, he would savor every last bite Ichirahu's ramen had to offer.

 

Naruto landed smoothly on the ground in front of them and smirked, "you two have gotten weak since the last time you punched me. With moves like that, you will have to train hard to be grate ninjas when you grow up," he said as he got back onto his feet and gave them a sagely nod, which earned his a head chop from Shikamaru.

 

"Of course we're weakened, we're in small bodies, dumby," Shikamaru sighed walking away, "use your head more, or else you're brain will starting to starve again."

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "whatever," he sulked, then brightened up so fast that you would have thought he was bipolar. He sort of was, in a way, but no one other than Shikamaru and Sasuke needed to know about that, "guys, you want to go train on the training grounds? I think there's an empty one ov-" Be was cut off when Shikaku spoke, honestly, the trio had forgotten all about him since he was so silent.

 

"Now hold up a sec, you three have just been through a trauma, I can't allow you to just run off and play around without getting checked first." He said sternly, "I know that you guys may think it's a drag, but we need to make sure that you three are alright." Shikaku softened when he saw the trio frozen, "look, I'm sorry, but It has to be done okay? So lets just-huh?" Sasuke, Naruto and Shikamaru froze, they forgot something important about their plan. Something that was now coming to bite them in the ass, their injuries from the past/future, was still with them. Sasuke was missing an arm, Naruto was burned all over his body, Shikamaru was missing some of the skin from his legs, and that wasn't even all of their injuries. Sure they could say that this they got them from the place they talked about, but how could they get all these injuries in a span of only three weeks and still be alive!? It was too unbelievable, even with their story. They were toast if they got checked out now, so, thinking like any other five year old in their position, they ran. Startled by their sudden escape, Shikaku took off after them, following them all over town until they ended up in one of the abandoned training grounds away from the village, the trio turned to face Shikaku, tired and out of breath, Shikaku himself was doing a little better than them, not even breaking much of a sweat from the run, "now..." he started, "are you three going to come quietly to the hospital with me, or will I have to drag you there my self?" 

 

Naruto pouted, regaining his breath faster than the others, "we'll go!" He started, making Shikaku sigh in relief, "that is, if you train us."

 

Shikaku stumbled a bit at that, he supposed that request isn't too far fetched, especially since he heard what they been through, but how would he make time? "I would be glade to train you," Naruto and the others smiled, "however," Shikaku continued, making the boy's frown, "I cannot train you all, not with my work. I am an ANBU commander, AND a Jonin commander. Which means I get called away to do lots of missions and paper work, even though I wish I could drop that roll for a while and just train you guys, I can't neglect my duties, I'm sorry boys."

 

Shikamaru sighed, whether it was from sadness, relief, or something else, the other two were not sure. "Follow my lead," he whispered to the other two, they nodded ever so slightly and waited for Shikamaru to show his plan, he straightened and looked his father in the eyes, "I understand. But as a clan head, you are supposed to teach your hair the way of the ninja before he enters the academy, right?" Shikaku nodded, unsurprised that his son knew this information, "then how about this: you take us under your wing, all three of us, and train us so that we can enter the academy, we'd like to start off with the basics first and work our way up. In exchange of training us, we will tell you the secret to defeating paper work so you will have more free time to either train us or do whatever you want. Do we have a deal?"

 

Shikaku looked at the three boys, surely they couldn't have the answer to defeating paper work and would just give it so freely to him if he just agreed to train them, would they? He was sure that using clones was the way to go, but, being a Nara, he was naturally curious on what they would say. Besides, he wouldn't be getting a bad deal if he accepted the deal either way, right? For one, he would get time to be with his son, he would get the change to watch his son make friends, and he would also get to make sure that they know how to defend themselves in time of need. With that in mind, he nodded his head with a small smile on his face, "alright son, I agree to see things your way, I accept your offer. Now tell me, what's the secret to defeating paper work."

 

Naruto was curious on what Shikamaru was going to say, as was Sasuke, they both knew that shadow clones was a very good way to cut down on the amount of paper work you would have to do, but was there really another way? Or was Shikamaru pulling all of their legs? Shikamaru opened his mouth and said, "blood clones."

 

The training grounds was silent, a mysterious tumbleweed came rolling past them from kami knows where and the wind picked up a little for a minute. After a while of people just staring at the serious look on Shikamaru's face, Naruto decided to break the silence....by whacking his best friend in the back of the head. "You idiot, explain your damn answers, we're not fucking mind readers!"

 

"Whoa, Naruto, watch you language, you're still a kid remember," Sasuke smirked when the blond took a swing at him, but missed. "Looks like you really need that training more than all of us, eh?"

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, Shikaku watched the interaction between then and was still confused.  _"Hm, okay, so about three weeks ago, three boys that was supposedly strangers to each other disappeared around the same time."_ He analyzed in his head,  _"then three weeks later, said three boys were spotted getting beaten up by a crowd of villagers, but disappeared in a cloud of smoke before I or Fugaku could lay eyes on them for longer than a second or two. The following day, they return, ridding on the back of a large-ish, red-ish orange fox, and crash into my window after I fell asleep from some drugged up tea my wife gave me that night. They demand to see the hokage and tell a story so sick and twisted that there's no grown man alive who wouldn't be totally mentally destroyed if they had went through the same treatment that they went through. Afterwards, I find out that one of those boys, a special boy who should be given all the respect of thee village, was kicked out of the place that was supposed to be taking care of him and reporting his safety, kicked him out. Then he was forced to live out on the street and eat out of the garbage?"_ Shikaku wasn't sure, but the way the pieces were falling into place, made up a story line of the most tragic character backstory that anyone could think up,  _"then, after all that's said and done, they ran away on the mention of a hospital visit, and ask for training.....If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a story line of a some sort of fan-fiction where the hero's endure hard times before saving the word from some unseen fate....."_ As Shikaku thought more about the situation, he started thinking up more ways that things could turn out, but decided to stop before he went too far off track and turned his attention back to the boys in front of him now. "Hm? Sorry, I must have spaced out or something, okay, you three have a deal, but be warned, I may seem like a laid back person now, but I won't be that way in your training, got it?"

 

The boy's smiled at him for a second before standing up straight and giving him a salute, "sir, yes sir!" They yelled happily before they tackled the man to the ground in a hug."

 

Meanwhile, the Hokage looked up from his crystal ball with a smile, he let the picture of the happy four fade before leaning back in his chair. "Well...." He asked as he blow smoke from his pip, "what do you make of this situation? He is your son after all, would you mind if another clan leader trains him?"

 

A man with dark, stormy blue eyes watched the picture fade completely before turning away from the Hokage completely, "you seem to forget, old friend, that I am supposed to be dead. Let the boy do as he wish, his training is in good hands if it's coming from a clan leader like Shikaku Nara," the man then left the room in a flash of yellow.

 

The last man on the room with the Hokage scuffed, "I don't see why Sasuke didn't ask me to train him, I would have made him strong, just like Itachi with the right training."

 

Hiruzen looked at the man for a long while before he let his had cover the top half of his face, "Fugaku, let's not kid ourselves here. Do you honestly think that Sasuke would be pleased that you wanted to teach him just because you saw him ask someone else? And to compare him to Itachi all the time, it makes no different which son came first, as long as he's your son, you should be proud that he wasn't to train to get stronger, not because of who his brother and father is."

 

Fugaku huffed and crossed his arms, "yeah, well...if he grows out of that childish thinking, then maybe he could go through with my training. But it seems that for now, I'll let him play these games of fancy, who know? Maybe he'll learn a thing or two to bring to the table," he said as he started to walk away.

 

Hiruzen's frown grew deeper, when Fugaku walked out and closed the door, he shook his head and took in a deep breath of air. "It seems that something has corrupted your thinking, you used to be a better man than this, I just hope that this doesn't lead you to your doom one day." Said the third as he returned back to his paper work.

* * *

 

Later on that same day, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Shikaku was back in the kitchen. Shikaku was cooking up some food with the help of the boys and some clones that helped the boys help him. They were having a grand time, they told jokes, laughed when Sasuke managed to spill flower all over himself, and ended up making a grate meal. They had home made ramen and pork, some riceballs with some bacon in it (one of Naruto's cooking inventions from the old timeline), miso soup, sushi, mint tea, and any other simple but elegant looking dishes that they found to make in an old cook book they found laying around the main house. Well, to say that they might have over cooked was an understatement, because they had to bring in an extra table to hold all the food they made, but still, they had fun making it and that was what truly mattered. At some point after cooking, the boys sat down to eat, but a knock came to the door, Shikaku went to answer it and came back with a crying Itachi (the only family member that Sasuke was actually looking forward to seeing again from his old timeline. Contrary to what everyone might have believed, Sasuke did not kill his brother, they had made up a year before when Sasuke found an old Uchiha hid out outside of the close to the boarder of the village boarder, it was interesting what was found there. After that, Sasuke found Itachi to tell him, but came to find out that due to hanging around the Akatsuki and participating in their plans of stealing bijuu from their host, his soul was poisoned. Every time he took a bijuu from it's master, his soul became poisoned more and more, until it was left weakened and internally dying without a cure. When Itachi told Sasuke this, Sasuke broke down for months, unable to lead his team, Hebi (?), properly, then Itachi dyed from internal bleeding during one last spar with his little brother, and that broke Sasuke completely. He went on a rage, trying to take over the world with Madara and his fuck toy, Tobi, until Naruto and Shikamaru knocked some sense into him.

 

When Itachi finally calmed down, Shikaku invited him to dinner, which is where they found themselves right now. They were all eating happily, "wow, this isn't half bad Nara-san, where did you learn to cook?" Itachi said as he tasted the richball with bacon inside.

 

Shikaku chuckled, "actually, I just followed Naruto's instructions, it wasn't all that hard, get some back, take some rice, make it into a ball and done." The current Nara head turned to the blond, "how did you even come up with something like that anyways, Naruto?"

 

Naruto slurped up a piece of noodle and grinned, "I donno, I was just sitting there one day and wondered what rice and bacon would taste like. I wasn't half bad really, y'know."

 

Shikamaru threw an arm around the blond's neck, "y'know Naruto, If I didn't know better, I'd say that you're trying to win my heart," he teased.

 

"Oh get off, Shika, I know it's a little weird, but I didn't have a lot of options back then when I made it okay?" Naruto huffed.

 

"Yeah Shika, give Naru a break, we should be glad that it's only rice and bacon this time," Sasuke chuckled and Shikamaru laughed.

 

"Hay! What's that supposed to mean, Sasu?" Naruto asked.

 

"Nothin', just thinking about all the weird food you could have made instead of something that doesn't taste too bad," Sasuke said while dodging a punch to the face.

 

"Well if you didn't like it, then spit it out and give it to someone else who actually likes good food!" Naruto yelled.

 

"Nah, I'm just messin' around, it's good, it's good," Sasuke chucked and took another bight, "....for a dobe."

 

"Aw, thanks Sa-OI! Take that back!" Naruto got ready to deliver a punch that Sasuke for sure couldn't dodge, but Shikaku spoke up.

 

"Boy, boys, come on, there's no need to be troublesome, just eat your food."

 

"Nara-san is right, Sasuke, you shouldn't fight with your friends," Itachi lightly sckulled.

 

Shikamaur chuckled, "busted."

 

"What's going on in here?!" Came a yell from the kitchen's door, they all turned to see Yoshino Nara standing in the door way with a confused, but angry look on her face.

 

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED.................


	5. This was not how it went last time...

Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, and Itachi sat in a circle in Shikamaru's bed room. The night had been going well until Yoshino showed up and all hell broke lose. What the hell happened, you ask? Well that's simple, when Yoshino showed up at the house earlier that evening, she wasn't expecting to see her husband awake and laughing like everything was made up of rainbows and sunshine (which is an impossible feet for reality to bare), while drinking sake in the kitchen. She was also was not expecting to see her once thought lost son to be sitting right there at the table with him, also drinking a clare-ish liquid that she was hopping was water. Another thing that seemed to set her on alert was the fact that Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha, were sisting next to Naruto Uzumaki, the very boy that many (including herself) called 'demon', laughing it up as well. But the thing that seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back was the fox. Not just any fox, but Kurama, what with his small form having nine tails and all, she was ready to freak out and skin the poor thing alive, turning him into either a stuffed trophy to display, or a fur coat of some kind, she couldn't really decide. But before she could even get to the fox, she had to figure out what was going on and shouted out  _"what's going on here"_ to the people at the table, who stopped eating and laughing to turn to here. Then Shikaku tried to play it cool, hoping to get out of a fight, but to no avail, and the two adults in the room argued. Itachi was feeling uncomfortable in that situation, seeing as how his parents never faught, and if they did, it was quit and away from both boys, he tried to let the two adults know that he was going to leave with Sasuke for the night, since it was already nine o'clock already and all, but when he turned to get his little brother, he came to see that he wasn't there. The older Uchiha panicked, but tried to stay calm at the same tome, he then proceeded to look for the boys, however, his search was short lived as he found them in the hallway of the second floor having a whispered argument of their own. He heard mentions of " _this didn't happen last time, what the hell his going on!"_ from Shikamaru. A slightly panicked,  _"I don't like this, does this mean that we may have broken up the natural events of this timeline?"_ from Sasuke. And a surprisingly calm reply from Naruto, who said,  _"don't worry, as long as we stick to the plan and keep this timeline from diverging too much from the first, we may have a chance of going unnoticed by others."_ Clearly why the three boys were talking to each other, Itachi had went into ANBU info-gathering mode and had masked his chakra well enough for him not to be noticed too quickly by the trio. By the time they were starting to calm and let down their guard a little bit, Itachi felt something next to him. When he turned to see what it was, he was met with the tale end, literally, of the fox who was with them at the table, then he was knocked out for about an unknown amount of time, only to wake to the sound of the three boys and a deep voice arguing again. Deciding that enough was enough, Itachi sat up, looked at the trio of boys and one kitsune, and spoke two options, _"tell me everything now, or else I report this to the Hokage,"_  which brings us to now.

 

Itachi sat there, his arms folded in front of his chest, eyes closed, and a clam look on his face. While Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Kurama sat before him with their heads down, trying to think of a way to explain to the young ANBU how they came to be in this position. Too bad they took too long to come up with some BS lie, and Itachi's worried brother mode was starting to let his ANBU take control of the situation. "So let's get some things straight with my side of the storry, alright?" Itachi began, breaking the long silence of the room, "you three go missing for three weeks and half a day, until you suddenly come crashing through Shikaku-san's living room window. Then you tell a story that makes the very beginning of it turn even the battle harden ANBU's stomach's, but if that wasn't all, I now come to find out that that same story you three told just a lie? Did I get everything right....well?" The three boys and the fox looked at each other for a second, seeming to have a small talk among themselves before nodding their heads as one, Itachi sighed, "I need an answer from you three, or at least just on of you."

 

"Yes, it's true, Itachi-nii," said Sasuke in a defeated tone.

 

Itachi nodded, "and then, in the hallway just now, I heard you three talking, something about a timeline?"

 

Another nod from the trio, "yeah, that's right Itachi-san," Shikamaru said calmly.

 

Itachi looked at the three, he knew for sure that this was not a normal behavior for either of them. For one, Naruto was sitting still for once and not being all loud and trying to get attention, he was also waiting to be asked things, instead of just shouting out his thoughts like Itachi had come to know him to do. Second, Shikamaru was sitting up right, as was all three of the boys, and answering questions without mumbling things like 'what a drag' or troublesome' every other time another question was asked/answered. Then there was Sasuke, his little brother, the most strangest thing of all was that he was hanging arounf Shikamaru and Naruto  _willingly_ , he's never done that before. Don't get him wrong, Sasuke's not an antisocial child, not at all, he was very social, but only towards children in their clan.To see his little brother interacting with boys his own age, outside of their clan no less, was a bit new, if not totally unexpected. Although, Itachi did suppose that his brother would have gotten friends that were outside of their clan at some point, maybe starting when he was to enter the academy in three years time, but that was still a ways off. Then there was the conversation he over heard in the hallway, it made him curious, what did these boys know that he didn't? I mean, he was the oldest one in the room at the moment (that he knew of) And yet, when he looked into their eyes, he saw years, ages, battles, scars and other things that were seen through those eyes that should never have been seen through the eyes of a child who was supposed to only be four years old. As Itachi thought to himself, he wasnted to know things, alot of things, like why they were acting this way, how did they know each other, when did they meet, and if that story he heard while from his father about them was true or not. It was a shock to hear, it hurt his eyes and he openly wept about it behind his father's back, but now, he was going to be a little pissed if said story wasn't true, maybe not at the boy's completely, but still....

 

Taking a deep breath, Itachi rubbed his temples with his fingers and thumb before as he spoke, "I'll give you each a chance to tell me-no, prove to me that what you say is true. If not, I will have to bring you three into the T&I department to extract the information my self, I know that may sound harsh right now, but you must understand the seriousness of this issue. The place that you talked about is actually a very, very, very bad and dangerous place, it's where all sorts of bad people hang out and if-" he was, however, cut off by Naruto.

 

"We know what kind of place that is, we've been trying to shut it down for years, but we couldn't touch it until recently. It had been protected by an act that the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, placed into effect many years ago. Because of that law, it was impossible to get our hands on it and chase away the villains that lived there. But," Naruto looked up at Itachi with determined eyes, "if we are bale to get through with this story, will only have to live with this small lie, compared to future heartbreak and terror caused by that evil pit."

 

Itachi was stunned, no, he was shook. The calmness of the usually loud Uzumaki struck a cord with him and he knew that he had to help them in their quest for justice. Although, another more important question came up and he spoke it before he could make sense of it himself, or even or wonder why he would even come up with such a question. "How old are you?" He asked.

 

The answer was obvious, yet not so obvious at the same time. Of course they were four, his mind told him, but their eyes, their eyes said something much older than he was sitting in that room before him. Naruto kept eye contact with Itachi while he spoke, "I am Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, Seventh Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves, and I am from the future here to re-write the past."

* * *

 

 

The next morning, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Itachi had came to an understanding. Itachi had been filled in on the happenings of the future, but only on the things that he needed to know about, like the Uchiha massacre that was due to take place in a few years time. They spent the whole not talking, questions were raised, answers were given that raised more questions, and the night was left to that. Itachi had felt sorrow for the times and events that hadn't even happened yet, and he was sure that if he didn't find a way to prevent those things from happening, then they would surely happen again. Why they came back, what they plan to do, and what he could help them accomplish was the main things on Itachi's mind, and he couldn't wait to put their skills together was his, to save the future. But for the present time, he decided to help the boy's train with Shikaku.

 

"Good morning boys, would you like some breakfast?" Itachi asked when the trio came down to the kitchen the next morning, "how was your sleep?" He asked as he turned to set the table, then stopped, by taking one look at them, he could see that they haven't slept well, if at all, "what's the matter?"

 

Naruto looked up at Itachi, he could tell that, due to his ANBU training, he could clearly see the signs of sleep deprivation and insomnia on their faces. It seems that even though they are in their childhood bodies, all the physical stuff from the future, which was now technically their past, came back with them with vengeance. Before the time jutsu, Naruto had not been able to sleep for weeks, when he did, it was about an hour or so at most, if not less than that at times. Shikamaru couldn't sleep because of the pain coming from his legs and because of the never ending noise he said he must have be cursed with for trying to save some of the bijuu that was still not sealed away. Sasuke wasn't allowed to sleep for a week after the attack Madara unleashed on the world, because if he did, he may have woken up blind in both eyes, with brain-damage to boot. All three boys, whenever they could sleep, all had terrible, horrifying nightmares about the war, their friends being killed, their families dying in their arms, and worst of all, the village and it's people burning right before their eyes. Also, not hearing another sound other than the empty silence and the sound of your own thoughts were madening within itself, so year, they may have not felt the need to really sleep at all after the war, but that didn't mean that they would fill their silence with their own voices. No, it was just to painful to talk, what would they even talk about? How they used to be like in the good-ol' days? That just brought back memories of their failer and how they totally fucked up at the end of the war by not bringing the fighting to an end sooner. They cursed themselves, still did, but hoped that this time would be different. Sure it still was unbelievable to think that they had just did a just to send them back into time, but then again, they were happy that it worked out, however, they just couldn't sleep, and that would soon become a problem.

 

Itachi watched the boys slowly make their way to a seat at the table, Naruto sighed as if his shoulders were holding onto a weight that his four year old body could not bare. Then Itachi remembered that, even though they looked four, and technically still were, they weren't. "Breakfast sounds nice, Itachi-san," Naruto said in a horse voice, it sounded so warn and tired that it broke Itachi's heart to hear it come from someone so small as the blond. In fact, now that he thought about it, Naruto was the smallest one of the three, sure Shikamaru may have been a bit skinnier than kids his age, but then again, the Nara was sorta normal for a young Nara, since they liked their sleep so much and all. But Naruto, not only was his skinny, he was short, about maybe a good three inches smaller than the other two boys, which made him look even younger, close to about three or maybe even two.

 

Itachi shook his head and got a determined look in his eyes, "Naru seventh Hokage, but yet you're not even the right size of toddler." He stated as the other two boys started giggling and said blond pouted, Itachi turned his gaze on Shikamaru, "and you. From what you told me, you were very valuable to the team's effort, so I'm going to make sure that you don't slack off in your duties, understand?" Shikamaru stopped laughing and muttered 'what a drag' as the other two started laughing at him, finally Itachi turned his eyes on his little brother, "and you Sasuke," the smaller Uchiha froze, "you weren't a very good friend to Naruto until after the war started. You were trying to destroy something that you should have been trying to help save, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

 

Sasuke pouted and looked down, he knew that this would come up sooner or later, he didn't want to face it, but he was going to, he had to face the consequences of his actions. "I-" Sasuke started, but he was cut off by Itachi.

 

"I don't want to hear it," Itachi said with his back to the three, "as of this day forward, the past is the past, or in this case, yours doesn't matter. What matters now is that we make sure that all that you had told me last night does not come true. It's going to be a hard road, a long one at that, but I believe as long as we stick together and think things through, then we will have a chance of changing future events." Itachi turned around with three plates on a tray, "but as for right now, eat up before the food gets cold, you're going to need your strength today. I'm going to make sure that you three do what you came here to do, it's the lest that I can do," he said as he placed down the plates and went back to the counter for a bowl of food, which he placed on the floor for Kurama. "I don't know how much this little even has already changed the future, or if it change the future at all, but I'm willing to see how everything changes from here."

 

The three boys smiled and nodded, "don't worry Itachi, I'm sure that we've changed somethings already, and if not, I'm ready to start," said Naruto with a big goofy smile.

* * *

 

 

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the four boys in the kitchen, Shikaku had woken up and had heard a good portion of the conversation. He was curious as to what they meant, but he was sure that he would find out sooner or later, he was good at waiting. Unless it involved his family and friends being in danger, then he may not handle it so coolly, but other than that, he was fine. He smirked, he decided to get some breakfast and see what little information he could get, "good morning everyone, how did everyone sleep?" He asked as he entered the kitchen, he could see the boys were awake and lively, Sasuke still had on bed sheet around his shoulders. He didn't really know why though, it may have something do do with the story, he had a feeling yesterday that he hadn't heard all of it, while Naruto and Shikamaru looked to be bright and cheerful. Wait a minute, it was early in the morning, everyone was up eating breakfast, he was up, and his son was already at the table, NOT sleeping?! Now he knew for sure that had to be going on, is son was never up early, and never before him, was the world going to end now? Was this a sign of the end?

 

"Good morning Nara-san, would you like some breakfast? It's still hot," Itachi said as he placed the rest of the food on the table, along with a pitcher of orange juice, there was more than enough food for everyone to have seconds if they wanted to.

 

Shikaku shook himself out of his daze and sat down, "thank you Itachi," he said before picking up his chopsticks, "thanks for the food." Everyone began eating again, when they all finished, Shikaku spoke up again, "Sasuke, Itachi, don't you two have to go home soon? I mean, your parents must be worried about you by now, since you've recently been found and all that."

 

"Hm, uh yeah, but I want to stay with Naruto and Shikamaru, I don't want to leave them alone, what if those people come and take them away again!" Sasuke said in a panicked voice, which he had learned to do during his time with Orochimaru, surprisingly, the snake sannin really liked his role play games, not so surprising, he also liked t play dress up in those games. Sasuke had never been one for cowering in fear, but just thought of playing another game with that man-Sasuke shivered internally, it was too much to for his sanity to take. Although, towards the end, Orochimaru did become a somewhat good guy and helped him, Naruto, and Shikamaru get farther in the war by telling them everything he knew about the enemies and their jutsu's weaknesses. The snake sannin wasn't so bad in the end, strong too, which might have also been why he had been one of the last people to die in the war. After everything they had been through with the guy, he wasn't the worst bad guy out there, although he wasn't actually a snake pedo like everyone thought, shockingly enough, and something else that may shock you, is that the trio did miss him after he died. Coming back to reality, Sasuke shook his head, "besides, you said that you would start training us."

 

Naruto and Shikamaru picked up on Sasuke's mood changer, since their minds were connected and heard all of his thoughts, they chimed in with an united, "that's right!" 

 

Shikaku sighed, "I know, I know, you don't have to remind me." He said before sitting up straight in his chair, "even so, you three just came back from a traumatizing experience, I don-"

 

"Nara-san, if I may, I think that you should at least test them first." Itachi chimed in, "I mean, yes, they did come from a traumatic experience, but they want to train to know how to defend themselves in the future. Wouldn't it be easier to just to see what they've got, and then take it from there?"

 

Shikaku pouted, he though for sure that Itachi would have been on his side and agree with him that they should take to the boy's to the hospital, however, it was all for not. Although, this led Shikaku to wonder,  _'what's really going on here? Itachi should be more than willing to take Sasuke to the hospital for a check up, but it seems that the boys may have done or said something that discouraged him from that action. I wonder what that could have been...."_ he sighed in defeat, not seeing another way of getting the boys to do what he wished, he decided to cut them a deal, "alright." He said as he got up from his seat and stretched his tired body, "right, here's the deal, we do one hour of training, just one, okay? If you guys can impress me even just by a little, I wont take you to the hospital until later in the after noon, but!" He said when he saw the thoughtful looks on the boys face that seemed to be considering the offer, "if you guys does not show me anything much, then I will be talking you all to the hospital for a check up within the hour. Is that understood?"

 

Naruto, Shikmaru, and Sasuke seemed to be thinking about their options, if it was up to them, they wouldn't go to the hospital at all. Back in the future, after Tunada died, and then Sakura following shortly after her, the hospital wasn't a hospital anymore. There were so many people dying of injuries that it was almost guaranteed that any any one with a wound that was leaning closer to the life threatening side of the scale, would sure die within the day. Tow days if they were lucky, and that was if they didn't die from the fight instead. Because of this reason, the hospital was turned into a funeral home, but without anyone available to make arrangement to lay the dead to rest. But they had to remind themselves that they were in the past once more, so the only reason not to go to the hospital, is so that the nurses and doctors there don't kill Naruto, since they didn't know what would happen if they, either one of them or all of them, died in this time. Although they didn't want anything to do with the hospital, they knew that they would havd to go eventually, but at this point, they figured that they could just try to impress Shikaku enough to see if he would just abandon the idea of taking them to the hospital, for today at least. Coming to a conclusion, the boys nodded their heads, "fine, but what if we did something to really impress you and tell you something that we are not supposed to know, what would you do then?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Shikaku chuckled, his sure was a Nara, he had the brains of an adult but the mentality of a sloth sometimes, it was an odd, but at the same time, not so odd combination. "Alright, alright, but that depends on what you show me," Shikaku stated as he took his dishes to the sink and started washing them himself. "Let's meet out in the traning grounds in about ten minutes so we can see what you three got up your sleeves," he turned around a bit to see the table, "I guess you'll be joining us, ne, Itachi?"

 

Itachi nodded as he gathered up the rest of the plates, "yes, I most certainly will," he said with a small smile, "I can;t wait to see what my otouto has to offer."

 

"Okay, we'll go get ready now," Shikamaru said as he and the others left the table and ran back up to his room. Once he had closed his door, he turned to the others, "okay guys, what shoul-OW!" He yelled after someone punched him upside the head, "what was that for Naruto?"

 

"Because you are supposed to be smart, you baka! How are we, a couple of four freaking year olds, supposed to impress a jonin and a soon to be ANBU?" Naruto berated his friend.

 

"Ugg, by showing them our powers, you dumbass, who else?" Shikamaru stated, then explained, "if we show them some of our powers, but not all, and not at full strength, then we could get their attention, plus more time to train."

 

"Yes, that is true," Sasuke chimed in, he turned to Shikamaru, "I can see your point, but you're forgetting some things. What if they go to the Hokage about this? We haven't even finished telling them our story yet, and no where in the story that we agreed upon, says where we could have gotten our power and strength from. Or were you just hoping to wing it this time?"

 

Shikamaru pouted, "no, because there's something that you're forgetting too," he said as he got up from the floor he fell on after Naruto hit him.

 

"Oh yea, and what may that be?" Sasuke asked.

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "the fact that we were taken to the shady part of town, anything could have happened to us there," he explained.

 

"So?" Sasuke said, not sure where the Nara was going with his explanation, but Naruto did.

 

"So any one could be found doing bad things over there, and since that part of the village is so dangerous, some shinobi doing boarder patrol don't like going over there. They often send in a fake report on the area because their either got found out and was threatened by the occupants there, or they were bribed not to tell what really went on on that part of town." Naruto explained.

 

Sasuke thought for a moment, "hn, with such a low security in that area, the enemy could get in easily, but they would have to know the area pretty well to go undetected. They would also need to be able to navigate through the streets there to get to the important part of the village."

 

Naruto nodded, "but not many people out side of Konoha would know about the area that the Salty Pineapple is in, or how low the security is there, unless..." Shikamaru trailed off.

 

"Exactly," Naruto spoke up, "no one  _outside_ of the village would know about that part, even if they were coming to visit the village. But what if we were taken by someone who used to  _live inside_ the village and knew all about that part of it. The locals would know more about this place than any outsider ever would, so what if, by some chance, a person who no longer lived in the village, broke in? What if that person who all the ins and outs of the village and knew where to fine....test subjects? What if, when said person was looking for a test subject, they got 'lucky' and found two more than he originally planned? What if this person took those test subjects for about three weeks before they 'escaped' his testings?"

 

The other two boys let the information sink in for a second before their eyes widened, Shikamaru shook his head, "you wouldn't mean..." Naruto nodded.

 

"Damn, and I thought that our story was messed up before, now you're just turning it into some sort of sick eye opener, or something," Sasuke stated.

 

Naruto chuckled, "even though the snake wasn't so bad in the end, I can't really forgive his crimes and all that he's done to people. I would be surprised if he wasn't punished for this alone, his rain of terror has to end some time, right? Why not now?"

 

Shikamaru sighed, "this just got a whole lot more trouble some."

 

Kurama huffed from his spot in the corner,  **"you guys are going to fuck up the time like so much,"** he grinned,  **"I can't wait to see all go down."**

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED....


	6. Genin exams

The genin exams was coming up in a few years, not really long to wait now. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke, after that day in the kitchen, decided to put all their planning into action. First off, when they left the table and put the finishing touches on their plans, they followed Shikaku and Itachi to the Nara traning grounds. There was were they let the older Nara in on some of their secret. Naruto showed that he could do a shadow clone in large numbers, instead of a regular clone. Shikamaru showed that he had already reached his father's level of the clan jutsu, but he did not show him the jutsus that he made based off of the family technique. Sasuke showed that he had the level four sharingon, and the fire ball jutsu, but nothing more. The three had agreed to keep their more advanced skills hidden until the chunin exams, when they knew that Orochimaru would surely show himself, but by that point, they would have already changed things up from last time, so they weren't too focused on that part yet. After showing these skills, as they expected, Shikaku wanted answers, so they told them what they felt was need-to-know. 

 

**FlashBack**

 

_"What the-how th-" Shikaku had just got done watching his son preform the Shadow Stitching jutsu without much problems at all. Thinking to himself, he frowned at the three boys, he folded his arms in front of him and said, "explain, now."_

 

_Knowing that this would happen, and also seeing that Itachi was still blown away, even after they had told him most of the truth the night before, it seems that he still wanted more info. So, without wasting much more time, they began the explanation. "Well, you see, we're from the future...." Naruto began._

 

_Shikamaru raised his eye brow, a sign that screamed 'I don't believe, cut the crap', Sasuke spoke up. "Although Naruto is telling the trught, he didn't explain much," the younger Uchiha sighed, while the blond rolled his eyes. "Okay, so here's the truth, we are from the future, like he said, it's a distant future were a horrible war happens and the world is in danger and a lot of people die because of one man's plan."_

 

_"And who may this man be?" Shikaku asked, he stared at the three boys with a lazy, but serious look in his eyes._

 

_"We probably shouldn't tell you this, but since you asked, it'd be troublesome not to." Shikamaru spoke up, "the guy's name is Madara Uchiha, he's from the old Uchiha clan, before Konoha was built. There were some things that went down between him and Hashirama Sanju, which I'll explain later if you don't already know, everyone thought he was dead."_

 

_"But he is dead," Itachi stated._

 

_Shikamaru shook his head, "that's what he wanted everyone to believe, actually, he did a jutsu on himself to make it seem as if he had died, but in actuality, he was alive all along. Thus, he had plenty of time to come up with a plan that was literally years in he making, he also had the help of a guy named Obito Uchiha, who took over his planning for a while."_

 

_Itachi gave them a puzzled look, "but that's impossible, Obito was my cousin, I was there at his funeral." He explained, "it was a little after the third shinobi war, he was on a team with a girl named Rin Otosuki and Kakashi Hataki, their sensai was the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. After the war, their team came back and told the clan that Obito was dead and his body was unrecoverable."_

 

_Shikaku nodded his head, "he's right, even if what you boys say makes may have some truth in it, how is it that two dead people planned the down fall of the world? Madara would be ancient, that's to say if he really is alive, and Obito was lost on the battle field, it seems to be too impossible to believe."_

 

_"Yes, we know, so lets just start from the beginning." Naruto said as he sat down in the grass, the other two boys followed his lead, and the last two, Shikaku and Itachi, followed them shortly after. Naruto took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, "everything was thought to have started with the Uchiha massacre, but that was wrong. It actually started a long, long, long time before that. Before the Uchiha's and Senju's became rivals, before there was even chakra in the world. In the beginning, and I know you may not believe this, but in the very beginning, there were people that was born without chakra, and they survived just fine. It wasn't until one night when a shooting stare fell from the heavens and sprouted a tree, a woman soon followed and was found by a human, he was the leader of a small village, a prince in fact. The man fell in love with the woman, but before long, they man was told a lie, and he betrayed the woman. With her heart broken, the woman ran to the tree, she plucked the fruit it grew on it's branches and was endowed with power, the type of power that we know as chakra today," the blond explained._

 

_"The woman was later known as Kaguya," Sasuke picked up the story, "she came from an unknown place, far beyond our understanding, but one thing was for sure. When she landed on earth, she was said to have been waiting foe something, or some one, but days and years went by and nothing ever happened. While she waited, she gave birth to two sons, those two boys were born with chakra already inside of them, their name's were Hamaru and Hagoromo Otsutsuki, they were twins and the first humans to ever be born with chakra, ever. As time went on, the tree that grew from the star kept growing, and Kaguya kept watching the skies, waiting, while her two sons, Hamaru, and Hagoromo, watched over the humans that was still there. They were both kind and fair, they resolved problems and lived their lives as normal, until one day they meet a frog."_

 

_"A frog?" Itachi and Shikaku asked, the story they were hearing seemed true enough, but now it was starting to get slightly far fetched._

 

_Naruto nodded, "yes, I'm sure that you know of summoning animals, they didn't just appear once everyone got chakra silly." The blond rolled his eyes, Shikaku and Itachi looked at each other but remained silent. Naruto continued, "anyways, they met a frog, it was elder of the frog summons, and he told them that he had a dream. Even back then, among other summons, it was known that frogs rarely ever dreamed, and when they did, it would always come true, and what this frog dreamed about was the destruction of the world by Kaguya's hand."_

 

_"Do you have any pr-" Itachi started, but was cut off by Sasuke._

 

_"We're getting to it, just listen Nii-san, this also will help explain some other things," Sasuke said._

 

_"Can I continue now?" Naruto asked annoyed that he was being interrupted so often , "anyways, Hagormo trained under the frog in something called Sage Arts, and he became the first sage. Also known as the Sage of six paths-AND IF YOU SAY ONE MORE THING, I PROMISE YOU WONT SIT RIGHT FOR TWO WEEKS!" Naruto shouted when he saw that the two older males were about to interrupt him once more, said males gulped and shrunk back, the blond smiled, "good. Now then, when Hagoromo had completed his training, he was forced to go up against his brother, because of Kaguya, but he soon turned it around where the two brothers turned on her. The three fought for many days and nights, causing destruction all over the place, until finally, they were able to seal Kaguya into the moon. While they were fighting, Kaguy also let lose a terrible beast made up of chakra that also added to the destruction, it was called the ten tails, or the Juubi, once Kaguya wa sealed away, Hagoromo split the juubi up into nine before becoming their jinturiki. Which is also know as The Ultimate Human Sacrifice. At the time of his death, he gathered all the tailed beast and told them to scatter, and also to become the protecter of their chosen land."_

 

_"It's why Kurama, the Kyuubi, came to the land of fire, Konoha, and Shukaku, the Ichibi, went to the land of wind, Suna. As well as others going to other lands that suited them such as Kiri, Kumo, and even Ame had at least one at some point, I think," Shikamaru spoke up. "But before that happened, Hamaru took it upon himself to guard Kaguya's seal on the moon, while Hagoromo stayed on earth so that he would help teach and guide them down the right path. He spent many years traveling, meeting new people, and teaching them the ways of Ninshu, before coming back to his home and having to sons. He named one Indura, and the other was Ashura."_

 

_"But the two boys didn't meet eye to eye, Ashura, even though he was smart and could do the training, he wasn't as skilled as his brother Indura. Ashura would go out and make friend while he trained, while Indura would train by himself and seep a way to get stronger on his own. When they got older, Hagoromo had already seen the difference between the two boys, and wanted to put them to the test to see who would be the one to take over his teachings. He sent both boys out on a journey, one that would show who was better to take over the Ninshu way," Sasuke explained. "Indura took one side, headind east, while Ashura took to the west. While they were away, their mission to find where the remaining roots of the old tree that came with Kaguya still was, they were to make the people that was living with the tree's root independent from the tree's influences. Indura finished his mission in a matter of months, while Ashura finished in a matter of a year and some months. Upon coming back home, Ashura brought back some of the people that was friends with him in the village."_

 

_"They told the story about how they managed to complete their mission, Indura's was simple, he simply made a water source for the people he helped. But that turned out to be bad, since those people fought over who's rights it was to have control of the water." Naruto said, "however, Ashura had stayed to help his people. He proposed a deal, if they could find their own water source on their own, then they would get rid of the tree that was also slowly killing them, but if not, he would leave and never come back. Ashura, however, was not easily discouraged, and began digging a well, he never stopped working, he rarely took breaks, and in time, the people of the village came to help him, even though he was a stranger to them. Together as one village, Ashura dug the new well with their help, it took a long time, but sure enough, they soon found a fresh source of water, and as promised, the villagers burned down the tree. Ashura also stayed to help the sick, and to teach the way of Ninshu to some of the people there that wanted to learn about it, after that, he came home with them. When Hagoromo heard this story, he saw right away that Ashur, not Indura, was the right person to take over his teaching, even though everyone thought he was going to pick Indura, sine he had clearly shown how skilled he was, Hagoromo could not see himself in Indura. When he made Ashura his heir, Indura became mad and spoke of revenge, he even attacked the their home during the celebrations, but by that time, Indura had become bad with power and anger, and Ashura had already received Hagoromo's power. When it was time for Hagoromo to die, he was visited by Indura one last time so that he could tell his father about his vow to get revenge because of what he had done to him that day."_

 

_"Because of this, Ashira and Indura became rivals. Indura's descendants became the Uchiha clan, while Ashura's baceme the Senju clan," Shikamaru explained. "From then on, the story picks up with Madara Uchiha's rivalry with Hashirama Senju, until one day they trussed and came to an agreement to build this village." he sighed as he leaned back, looking up at the clouds, "even though the history books have holes in that story, it's close enough to accurate that the base idea of it is there."_

 

_"Any questions?" Naruto asked._

 

_Itachi raised his hand, as if they would have trouble locating him outside in the field, "what happened in the war?" He asked innocently enough, he saw the three stiffen before at the mention it last night, and then again today, he he wanted to know. "I mean, last night, when you were talking about the massacre, you seemed to hint at something worse, so I would like to know what it is, just in case there's a way for us to help you top it form happening."_

 

_Shikaku was now interested in hearing about this as well, "hmm, I would like to know about this too. I guess I was too busy talking to that troublesome woman to notice that you guys had already run off to your room for the night. Ah! Sorry, Itachi, Sasuke, you guys stayed out all night and most of the morning since I didn't let you guys leave last," he said in a sad tone, "your old man must be pretty pissed at me by now, what a drag."_

 

_Itachi shook his head, "it's not your fault, I wanted to stay, besides, I'll deal with him later. Right now, I want to know about the future," he turned back to the three, "so? What happens?"_

 

_Naruto pouted, "nothing good," he said._

 

_"We really can't tell you to much," Shikamaru stated, "but just know that Madara and Obito are still alive somewhere, right now, and they're planning."_

 

_"You should also probably start training, to make sure that your skills don't get rusty. It would help out, I don't know how much, but still," Sasuke chimed in._

 

_"Hay, is there a way to have a moving base of communication?" Shikamaru asked out of no where, the two present people looked at him strangely, but Naruto and Sasuke seemed ready to hit him, "what?"_

 

_"What happened to not telling them too much?" Sasuke muttered to the young Nara._

 

_Shikamaru shrugged, "what? It's not like I gave away anything, I was just asking a general question."_

 

_Naruto sighed a heavy sigh and shook his head, "whatever, anyways," he turned back to the older males, "we would like your help. In return, we will give you as much information as we can about upcoming events that could change the future in a major way, while you train us. We need to work on stamina, strength, chakra control, and also recon. In addition, I think we should know the whereabouts of the other just in case of emergencies, it would be a big help in. So far, we only know where Gaara is, he's the jinturiki for the Shukaku, the one tail, in Suna, and Killer B, for the Gyuki, the eight tails, and Yugito, for Matatabi, the two tails."_

 

_"That means we need to locate three tail up to the seven tail," Sasuke sighed, "that's going to take a lot of work."_

 

_"Not really, the last time around while Naruto was with Master Jiraya, and Sasuke was with Orochimaru-" Shikamaru started but was interrupted._

 

_"What the heck were you doing with that guy? Don't you know how troublesome he is?" Shikaku asked giving Sasuke a sharp look._

 

_Sasuke scratched the back of his head, "uh, yeah, but I was young and stupid back then, I didn't know then what I knew now. Um, as you were saying Shika?"_

 

_"Anyways, while you two were off doing whatever, I was put in charge of the exams. The Kazakage at the time was working with us to create the test, it was during the second part that of it that I was told about the seven tails. If I remember right, I think her name was Fuu, or something like that?" Shikamaru explained, he looked at Naruto, "do you remember their names, Naruto? I remember you telling me that they gave you some of their strength after introducing themselves to you back then, if you could remember what their jinturiki's looked like, or maybe even just their name, it would help out a lot."_

_Just then Naruto slapped himself in the head, "oh Kami! I almost forgot all about that!" He said while holding onto his hair in frustration._

 

_"Huh? What is it, Naruto?" Shikaku asked._

 

_Naruto shook his head and stood up, an excited look on his face, "what is it? I'll tell you what it is, those beautiful tailed beast and their jinturiki's just gave us a possibly HUG advantage in changing things!" He clenched his hands, "guys, I need to work on chakra control."_

 

_"Well yeah, we all do dobe, but what's your point?" Sasuke asked._

 

_"Because," Naruto said as he sat back down again, "when the tailed best introduced themselves to me before they got sucked into the juubi, they each gave me a peace of their chakra so that it's like I could communicate with them if I want to. But to do that, I would need the same, if not close to the same, amount of control over mine and Kurama's chakra so I could contact them all in my mindscape and tell them about our plan, ya'know. That way, they would maybe be more likely to help, if they see that they were all gathered up in my mindscape, it would sorta be proof, but still, it would take a lot of training to get back to that level of control to do it."_

 

_Itachi had heard enough, he wasn't sure he believed everything that was said, but he was sure that there was truth in it. Only time would tell if everything, or nothing that was said was truth or a lie. Either way, his mind was set on helping these three boys out with their mission, Shikaku was thinking along the same lines as Itachi. But they both knew one thing, the next few years would be troublesome._

 

**Flashback over**

 

It's been about three years since that day, and Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Naruto was now entering their first years of the academy. Since that day, Naruto and Sasuke had become a more permanent fixture at the Nara compound than at their own homes. Fugaku agreed to let Sasuke stay with the Nara's as long as he comes home from time to time, it was fine, so Sasuke usually went home on the once or twice a weeks and sometimes stayed there on the weekends so his mom didn't get abandonment issues or something. For a retired konoichi, she's very dependent on hanging out with her sons for some reason, but since Itachi was older and Sasuke was hanging out with his friends more often, she still become lonely and ended up talking her husband into having another kid, which he was not happy about. Mikoto ended up having twins this time, both girls, she name the first one, Sasumai, and the other, Itani, Fugaku was even less happy by the fact that they were girls. He expressed his of his new born daughters by not coming home for three months after they were born, Mikoto was heartbroken and didn't know what to do at the time. Sasuke seeing this happen, asked Shikaku if his mother could stay with them until his father got his act together, Shikaku agreed, even if Sasuke didn't ask, he didn't like the way the Fugaku was treating his wife and daughter and would have wanted to help the new mother out either way. Although it took Fugaku three months and change to finally get back to his old self and accept his new twin daughter, Mikoto was already considering living apart from the man because he wanted to leave her and their children for so long without a giving a reason why. As the years went by, Mikoto slowly but surely found out about the boy's training and wanted to join in on the experience. After the three months was up, Mikoto decided to stay a little long to help train the boys some more, and also, the other Nara's did not mind her company and often helped take care of the twins while their mother was busy. Mikoto could see the difference between the Uchiha and the Nara clan, not the fact that one was kinda lazy, and the other was prideful, it was the fact that the Nara's were more helpful and supportive than her own clan. She wasn't sure how she felt when she realized that she was starting to like the Nara's more than the Uchiha's, but put the thought off to the side, not really seeing much need to worry about it now. 

 

As the first year of Naruto's, Shikamaru's, and Sasuke's training came to an end, they started to let a little more of their future selves seep through to the surface. However, it was only around the people that they though that they could trust, such as Shikaku, Itachi, and even Mikoto was let in on the secret. She couldn't believe it at first, but she came to accept it shortly after seeing all that Sasuke could do. They made sure that Fugaku never found out, since he would use Sasuke's powers to take over the leaf, or at least try to, and Itachi was also kept close to the Nara compound because of the previous timeline. It was around the start of the third year when they let the third Hokage know of their secret. Of course Hiruzen had to confirm their story and called in Inoichi to do a memory dive, which revealed very, very, very many secrets about the boys, some secrets that not even they were ready to let each other know about just yet. The biggest secret that was found out, other than that the three boys was being from the future and there fur being older than they looked, was that Naruto had a kid before the war happened. The blond was able to kick everyone out of his mind before they could find out what had happened to the baby.

 

**Flashback**

 

_Everyone stared at the blond in shock at what they had just seen, "N-N-Naru, i-is this t-true?" Shikamaru asked, barely able to form the words that was running around in his mind._

 

_Tears streamed down his the blonds face as he turned away from their praying eyes, "y-yes, i-it's t-true...."_

 

_Sasuke hesitantly took a step forward, as if he took it too quickly the blond would run, "Naruto, why...why didn't you tell us about this? We could hav-"_

 

_"What?" Naruto asked quietly, "what could have been done? There was a war going on, I needed to fight, to help, or else we wouldn't even be standing here today. There was nothing that could have been done."_

 

_Mikoto, sensing that something bad happened, asked, "wha-what happened to the baby?"_

 

_The room seemed to get quieter, the temperature felt as though it had dropped some, but no one said a word. No one moved an inchi, they all stood there waiting, waiting for the boy to answer the question. "It..." He started slowly, everyone seemed to hold their breath, "i-it was stolen, before I could do anything, she was kidnapped right out pf my hands."_

 

_"By who?" Shikamaru asked, desperate to know, and why shouldn't he? What if it was his daughter that Naruto had? And then she was stolen right from the blond's arms without him, a possible father to the mystery child, knowing?_

 

_Tears streamed down Naruto's dull blue eyes, "by him...."_

 

_Two gasped were heard in the room, while everyone else was standing there confused, "who are you talking about? Madara Uchiha?"Asked Itachi._

 

_Naruto shook his head as he turned around, he wiped the tears from his eyes, "no, not Madara. He never knew that a male jnturiki could give birth, and we wanted to keep it that way. But...."_

 

_"But someone knew, or they found out, and any male jinturiki that bared a child, was stolen soon after. He heard reports about it from other jinturiki in the allied shinobi forces that were still alive at the time. The only clues that we could get from them at the time was of a masked figure that radiated evil from his very core." Sasuke stated in a monotone way, "this person would some how get wind of the births, even the most secretive ones, and would lay in wait to take them. We've been calling him the Cradle Robber ever since the first report of the incident."He would go after no other but ones like Naruto."_

 

_"But why would he want to take the children of jinturiki's? And the male ones at that, what is the point?" Hiruzen asked after taking in and thinking about the information for a bit._

 

_"We don't know why he takes them when they're just born," Shikamaru started, his voice shaking in anger. "In our time, it was said that a child born from a male jinturiki would be very strong and wine just about any battle that they came across, if that power was to fall into the wrong hands." He couldn't finish as his fist clenched tighter until blood was drawn, he took in a deep breath be calming down, if not some, "however, there is a rumor in our time, that if a male jinturiki was to fall pregnant, the unborn child would cost thousands, if not millions on the black market."_

 

_"How so?" Shikaku asked calmly, even though, if you listened closely, you could hear the anger in his voice as well._

 

_"Because, in that state, the mother and the child are linked, they can share anything in their blood.....even bloodline limes," Naruto stated making the adults gasp. Shikamaru and Sasuke stared wide eye at Naruto, since this was the fist time they had heard of this, Kurama, on the other hand, just looked at the blond with pity in his eyes. He was the one that felt the most guilt, since he was the only one with the blond at the time. Naruto took in a deep breath, "yes, I found this out some time after I found out about her....it was a shock, but I got over it, I didn't want to tell you guys because it would have made you worry and want to protect me all the time. I couldn't let that happen, so I hid it the best I could until it was time.....but then **he** came right after she was out. He just walked over to me and scoped her up before he left me there alone, he only said one thing to me before he disappeared." _

 

_Shikaamru narrowed his eyes, "he's never said anything before, what did he say?"_

 

_Naruto looked down at the ground, "he said that his collection was finally complete....and that I should be grateful for saving the world this way...."_

 

_Shikamaru hit the wall with his fist, he was so angry with himself for not being there to help that he didn't care if his hand was now bleeding more and some of the bones in his fingers were broken. The other's tried to say to calm him down and tell him that since he was in the past now, he could prevent that from happening. But Shikamaru didn't calm down so easily, he turned away from the wall and walked out of the office, letting the door slam into the wall as he went. When he was gone, everyone heard a cracking sound coming from the wall, when they looked to see what it was, they were just into to see the spot that Shikamaru punch grow large cracks in it. The cracks spread out widely until it was as tall as a person, and as wide as the thirds desk, then the cracking wall made a snapping sound and that part of the wall came crumbling down, leaving a hug hole in the wall for all to see. Naruto sighed, "I'll go talk to him," he said before walking out the door, same as Sasuke, before anyone could gather their thoughts to stop them._

 

_Hiruzen took of his hat and scratched the back of his head, "and hare I thought that Tsunade was bad."_

 

**Flashback end**

 

After that day, Shikamaru had not left Naruto's side, not once, neither did Sasuke, much to the disappointment of his slowly growing fan club. A few months after that day, it was time for the boys to enter the academy, since they had promised to keep their powers hidden until the chunin exams, they went about their day like last time. But slightly different, they stuck together, with Sasuke paying attention much less than before, he would also wear a smaller version of hi black cape from the future, curtsy of his mom, although this seemed to draw in the fan girls even more and his fan club grew to an even bigger number than last time. Naruto and Shikamaru would be found sleeping in class like last time, but this time, Naruto didn't pull half as much pranks as he had last time....until his second year that his. Chouji would sit with Shikamaru like last time, however, Naruto was there this time, since the Akamichi's didn't have a problem with the Kitsune container, they became friends rather fast. Sakura and Ino sstill drooled over Sasuke, much to his distaste, Hinata still had a crush on Naruto, who he pitted, Kiba became the loudest in the class since Naruto was sleeping all the time, Shino was Shino, and Iruka was Iruka. Mizukistill tried (and failed) to cheat Naruto out of his education on becoming a ninja, and everything else was still like before the war in the last time line. However, this time around, when the genin exams came around, Naruto decided to change his look, it was the start of plan, years in the making. Will it succeed or will it fail? 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED 


	7. Memories of......something

Naruto never did like going to the academy, even in the other time line, he didn't have any friends, no one talked to him unless he got in trouble for it after. No one cared if they lied to get him kicked out of the class, and the teachers didn't care if the lie was more than obvious to see. I mean, come on, they're chunin, how could they be so easily fooled by by mere experienced children who haven even passed the exams yet?You would have to be completely blind not to see what was going on, but they chose not to, and Naruto didn't care for it. However, since he was fed up with their act, he decided that, since it was the day of graduation, he would change things up a little bit. He did not care if this was to mess with the time line or whatever, he was going to have a little revenge on them all, and show everyone how dumb they've really been all this time. The first step of his plan came with his outfit. He was more than happy that he was getting rid of his orange jump-suite-of-death-eye-sore that he woken up extra early that morning, started up a fire, and burned every singe orange piece of fabric he could find in his part of the closet. Now this does not mean that he no longer had anything to wear to school that morning, he was smart and thought ahead by henging himself as random rich people and went on an all out shopping spree. Up till know, Shikamaru and Sasuke still didn't know that Naruto had hacked into both of their bank account, as well as some others, and used that money to pay for his new wardrobe. After the cleansing of his closet, he took as shower and got dressed while a clone of his made breakfast for everyone, when he was done, he came down stares to help finish making the food. Coming down to the kitchen, Shikamaru and Sasuke gave a lazy good morning to their fellow time traveler before doing a double take of the grown man, now back in a supposed twelve year old body. Sasuke blushed and tried to look away, since he still wasn't over somethings that went on between him and his blond friend, while Shikamaru started head on at the blond, unashamed if anyone saw. The next few people to come down the stares was Shikaku and Itachi, who seems to have gotten rather close as of late, although, the nature of their relation ship is still up for debate. When the two males, one being older than the three boys, and the other being older than all four, noticed Shikamaru and Sasuke, who was still trying not to stare like the younger Nara, just standing in the entrance to the kitchen, they were curious to see what they were looking at. They both walked up to them just into the see for Shikaku to grab his son as he suddenly got a bloody nose for some reason, and then Itachi found that his little brother was just on the verge of fainting, with a little blood trickling down his nose as well.

 

"Shikamaru? Shikamaru! Son, can you hear me? What happened to you? Speak to me!" Shikaku tried to get a some answers from his son, as did Itachi, they were both worried for the boys and wanted to know what happened to them.

 

"T-th-the...." Shikamaru started weakly.

 

"Yes, what is it? You can tell me," he said, some tears entering his eyes as if this was the last time he would ever see his son alive again. Shikaku would never admit to anyone that he was somewhat emotional when it came to his son, however, those who know him know that he was a sobbing mess when Shikamaru said his first words. Still, the older Nara would, never admit it.

 

"T-t-the b-bu-buns ar-ar-re t-too r-r-r-roun-nd," Shikamaru then went on to pass out in his father's arms, followed by Sasuke, both with smiles on their bloodied faces.

 

"....." Shikaku stared at hi son, his eye brow twitching as he had yet to understand what the hell his son was talking about.

 

"....." Itachi as well stared at hi s little brother, his eye brow also twitching for a second before both males let dropped doth boys on the floor and got up to heat towards the kitchen. They sat down and sighed, "if it wasn't for the fact that they're from the future and have been through so much, I would have thought some had replaced my otouto with some sort of brainless baka," Itachi sighed as he rubbed his temple.

 

"Same here, jeez, if I knew my son would become so obsessed with food in the future, I would would have taken him grocery shopping more." Shikaku stated as one of Naruto's clone placed some scrambled eggs and sausage on the table, this clone was dressed in a fox onise that Shikaku though suited the blond rather well. However, this outfit was not what made the boys get bloody noses earlier.

 

Itachi nodded and sighed, then he turned to the Naruto clone, "good morning Naruto-kun, would you like any help with breakfast?"

 

"No thank nii-san, I've got it, I'm almost done anyways," Naruto's clone said with a bright smile as he walked back to where the other clones were gathering the rest of the food.

 

"Naruto sure does know how to cook up a good meal, I wonder where he learned to do that," Shikaku said as he poured some of the coffee Naruto brought over into a mug.

 

"With the way his life was, in this and the other time line, it seems that he's always known how to cook good food," Itachi said with a sad smile on his face as he looked into his cup of of orange juice. 

 

**Two minutes later**

 

Shikamaru had finally decided to wake up from their early morning nap/bloody nose coma, and were now sitting at the table rubbing their heads to get rid of their headaches. "Oh man, what a drag, it's graduation day and my head already hurts," Shikamaru complained.

 

"That's what you get for almost giving us a heart attack," Itachi said as he ate.

 

Shikamaru pouted at the older Uchiha before sighing and eating the food on his plate, a few moments of silence went by when Shikaku finally spoke up. "Okay, so what was that about earlier?" He asked, eyeing his son closely.

 

Shikamaru and Sasuke only pointed to Naruto, the blond raised an eye brow as the other two looked at him. "Don't look at me, I was just making breakfast when I heard somethings hit the ground, when I looked over, I just saw them laying on the floor," Naruto explained as he sipped his orange juice.

 

"Hm, I see, by the way Naruto, is that your new outfit?" Itachi asked changing the subject, from what he could see of it, the blond wore a gray sleeveless ANBU shirt that fit him well, a darker gray sleeveless jacket with a hood, pockets and zipper being black. Since they were sitting, he could only see that Naruto's pants were black and seemed to be fitted as well.

 

Naruto nodded, "yep, I'm changing up my style form here on out. This way, I don't have to hid how I am that much and maybe now people will leave me alone long enough so I can actual, you know, live a little."

 

Itachi patted the blond on his head as he saw him as another little brother, as well as Shikamaru, "that's good to hear Naruto-kun." He turned to the other two boys, "what about you Sas-chan? Aren't you going to change your look as well?"

 

Shikamaru and Naruto chuckled at Sasuke's nickname, said boy nearly dropped his fork full of eggs, "what's wrong with my current style?" He asked looking down at his blue high collar shirt and white shorts, his arm was covered by a cape that was identical to the one he wore in the future, "I don't find anything wrong with it."

 

"Maybe you should get your eyes checked out, because that looks like you were searching for something cool to wear in the dark, and that's coming from me," Shikaku stated. "If anyone was to tell, they would say we Nara's, even though we take a lot of naps, watch clouds and complain about our wives, we still care about how we look. I mean, just look at Shikamaru, he looks at least half way decent."

 

"Hay!" Shikamaru glared at his dad.

 

"Calm down son, anyways, you should think about wearing something that doesn't say 'I've gone color blond, please help me', okay?" Shikaku advised, Sasuke pouted as he continued to eat in silence.

 

"By the way, where's Mikoto Oba-chan this morning, and the twins too? They always come running for breakfast when I make it," Naruto said.

 

Itachi tensed slightly, which didn't go unnoticed by everyone, he knew he couldn't lie, but it would have been nice to. "Kaa-san and tou-san are fighting over the twins, he wants them to live with him, not her, and she wan't the same for them, but with us here. Last night, tou-san sent someone over to serve her and she's supposed to be in court today, with the twins, and...Sasuke and myself," Itachi explained. "We are to meet them at the court house this afternoon after you guys take your test, but since this case mostly revolves around kaa-san, she had to be there much earlier." Everyone looked down at their almost empty plates, ever the years, since the twins were born, Fugaku has been trying to get his hands on them, and maybe try to get his family back together, forgoing the coup idea, however, the only reason he's not getting his way is because of two things. Well, make that three, one; Mikoto found out what happened to her son's in the last time line and didn't want that to happen again, so she's keeping them away from the other hateful Uchiha's who were in on the coup. Although she can't keep a father from his kids forever without meeting in court, she allows him limited and timed visits with them. Two; some evidence to say that Fugaku may not be fit to be around kits under the age of twelve and thirteen have mysteriously shown up on the Sandime's desk in the past year that started an investigation the said evidence, as well as the source. And three; Mikoto doesn't trust that Fugaku would keep his word when he says that he would never go against the village in the future, this all boils down to a tough battle for the Uchiha clan head.

 

**Ten minutes later**

 

After everyone was done eating, Naruto took it upon himself to help his friends change up their look from the last time line, 'start fresh' is what Naruto told them, and they knew they couldn't argue with their kage. For Shikamaru, a black sleeveless muscle shirt with a dark green hoodie over it that had the Nara symbol on it, and black ANBU pants with black civilian converse that had chakra metal in the souls and tole of the shoe. For Sasuke, a dark blue kimono top with white flames licking the bottom and the Uchiha symbol on the back, a black obi to hold it in place, and black ANBU pants with dark blue sandals. When getting up to help the boys with their outfit, it was discovered that Naruto's pants were actually leggings that looked be some how painted onto him, as they showed off his long legs and round butt that had everyone staring as he walked away. Once Naruto let the room to go make each of them their lunches, a silent vow rang through their minds: Protect the booty.....Naruto soon noticed that everyone was staring at his round behind and chose to switch his dark gray jacket for a longer so he would be covered back there. Naruto handed them their lunches and left the house, embarrassed by all the attention he was getting. However, Itachi explained to the blond that he was only staring because he was wondering about his workout schedule.... 

* * *

 

**Academy**

 

"Oh come on, Naru, you know I couldn't help it!" Shikamaru complained to the blond as they walked through the halls.

 

"Mhmm, right, suppose I was to tell future Tamari about your wondering eyes this morning, hmm? I'm sure that she would be more than ready to jump out her grave and kick your ass," Naruto short back as he walked quickly to get to the class room, and end the conversation.

 

Shikamaru groaned, "why you gotta be like that Naru? You know she stares at your butt waaaay more than me, so what's wrong with me doing the same thing?" He tired to reason, but the blond turned his head away from the Nara, not wanting to look at him any further, "tch, come Sasuke, back me up here, you were staring too."

 

"I-I-I was not," the Uchiha stuttered, already falsifying his tale, Shikamaru gave him a look, "what? I told you, me and him were done back then, and it's already been like, what? Six years since that day at the Valley of the End, give a guy a break! Besides, I don't even like the dobe like that in the first place, remember?"

 

"Then how come I saw that hand of yours trying to cop a feel back at the house this morning?" Shikamaru accused, earning a gasp from the blond, a shocked looked form the Uchiha, "and I know you can't say you weren't doing  _that_ in the bathroom last night after your spar with Naruto earlier."

 

Naruto snapped his head towards the now heavily blushing Uchiha, "you were wanking off in the bathroom to a picture of me again last night weren't you!" It wasn't a question, but a statement.

 

Shikamaru smirked at Sasuke, "n-n-no I-I wasn-" he saw Naruto narrow his eyes at him, "Shikamaru's been taking pictures of you in the shower and when your getting dressed! He's already sold twenty-seven of his collection so far!" He said pointing to Shikamaru who had a shocked and stunned look on his red face.

 

"WHAT!" Yelled three people behind the two boys.

 

Shikamaru clenched his fist, "na-uh, I've sold you thirty-one, and you still owe me for the last four you perv!" He stood in front of the Uchiha, arms crossed, a serious look on his face.

 

 **"What..."** growled a certain blond.

 

"Ha, and you still owe me for the last seven I too Naruto and  _you know who_ ," Sasuke defended as he glared at the Nara, his (only) hand on his hip.

 

The two were staring each other down so hard that you could see electricity between them, meanwhile, they were so focused on each other that they forgot that their were still others in the hall with them. A dark aura filled the air around them, sending a chill up the duo's spine, they slowly turned their heads around to see that it was Naruto, a very, very, very mad Naruto. "If I were you two, I'd definitely be running now," came the voice of Kurama, the two boys nodded they heads and slowly backed away from the blond before braking into the fastest sprint of their lives, while Naruto was hot on their trail.

 

"Well...that was an eye opener," Shikaku said, thinking out loud, Itachi nodded in agreement.

 

Kurama turned to the other two who had accompanied the boys all the way to the academy, "are you guys going to go now, or are coming to the class room too?" He asked as the three left overs ("we're not left overs!" Yelled the fox) as they walked.

 

"Yes, the school had sent out invites to the parents and guardians for the students to show their support," Itachi explained. 

 

"Did that happen in the last time line, Kirama-san?" Shikaku asked, curiously.

 

Kurama shook his head, "no, hm...oh this must be one of those time flux things that I was warned about by the old man!" The chibi fox realized.

 

"What!" The two yelled, making Kurama stop to cover his ears.

 

"Would you two mind, I have sensitive ears!" He yelled back at them, they grumbled an apology to the fox and continued on walking.

 

"Kurama-san, why didn't you tell us about this time flux thing before?" Itachi asked, not really remembering them talk about such a thing before.

 

"Hmup, that's cuz I forgot til now, 'kay, now on before we miss the test," Kurama said dashing down the hall where they boys went. It wasn't really hard to follow the trio that ran off because they seemed to have left a trail of burned wood in their path,  _'maybe I should talk to kit about upping his kekki genki?'_

* * *

 

**With Naruto after they fan off**

 

Naruto was seeing red, he could NOT believe that he let Shikamaru  _and_ Sasuke find a way to take pictures of him while naked. Again! Oh, when he catches up to them, he will do things to that will make an jonin, no scratch that, an ANBU beg for mercy. Then he was going to be the one taking pictures of them, but that's not all! Since they were selling the pictures of to each other, he wondered how much money he would make from Sasuke's ever growing fan club, and better yet, Shikamaru's slowly forming one. He'd be rich! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! (Sorry about that, but Naruto tends to go a little crazy when finds out that people have been invading his privacy without his permission) "Damn right I do, now where are those perverts, Naruto's got some money to make, hehehehee!" Naruto laughed evilly as he looked about the hallway for his two so-to-be victims/prey.

 

Meanwhile, a few feet away from the raging blond, around the corner actually, sat the two said vic-boys. "Damn, Sasuke, why'd you have to bring the pictures into it, huh? Now we wont be able to take any more until he forgets about this whole thing, and you know how long it took last time," Shikamaru groaned as he put his head in his hands. The last time they too naked pictures of Naruto was when the war was still slightly more calm, they had asked some of the girls if they could find a way to cheer up the men who were feeling in over their heads and wanted to quit. The girls only agreed because they could see that after a few years of fighting, it was starting to take its toll, some some of the women dropped their standards some and some battle field weddings were established. Some couples even lived to see their anniversary while others managed to have a child. While there were others who wanted to find a way to live to see their victory and keep their options open, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and some others gave those people supplies for a lonely night. Though they weren't proud to do so, they had to find ways to keeps up the spirits of the troops, even if that meant they had to sneak a few pictures here and there.

 

Sasuke thought about all that they've done in the past-er, future, and saw that he still had to remind himself that he was in the past again. Shaking his head of those thoughts, he looked at the Nara, "Shikamaru, we gotta get to class so we can do the test."

 

"How much time we we have?" Shikamaru asked coming back to the current times.

 

Saskue looked at a clock that was hanging on the wall across from him, he paled, "if we don't get moving right now, we'll miss the first test all together."

 

"Shit," Shikamaru ran through their options in his head and was only coming up with a two ways to get to class. One, they can ditch Naruto and not face his wrath, then get to class with a shadow clone of the blond that will take his test for him until he catches onto where they are and rain down hell upon then once their alone. Two, they could run out and lead Naruto to the class and hope that he doesn't rip their heads of in front of the others before they all sit down, take the test, and then run like hell around the village with the blond on their heels, until eventually they're caught and he rains hell down upon them publicly. And then again privately. To be honest, Shikamaru wasn't really feeling the latter choice and was leaning towards the former, that is, until a chill ran down both of their spines and they heard a sickeningly sweet voice.

 

 **"Oh there you two are, I though I was going to bring this whole building to find you,"** giggled Naruto. He saw the way the two were now shaking like a leaf, seeming to forget any plan that they may have made up within this small frame of time, he cleared his throat, getting their attention, "run." They didn't need to be told twice and they took off just like before, "ah, I do like a good chase early in the morning," the blond said and took off after them singing,  _'I'm coming to get your~'_

 

 

* * *

 

**In the meantime, classroom**

 

Today was the day of the genin exams and there were parents and students alike talking to each other. Iruka walked into the class room to be greeted by loud chatter and everyone ignoring his greeting, even the parents, the rude pricks, so as perusal when he was trying to start class, Iruka used his Big Head jutsu to shut everyone up. Once his day goal was accomplished, he cleared his throat, "ahem, anyways, thank you all for coming, today, as you all know, is the graduation exams, also known as the genin exams. This year, since we wanted to promote a good support system for the new graduates, we have sent out invitation letters to your parent's and/or guardian........" Iruka went on with his introduction and went on to the roll call. He was in the was in the middle of call when the door to room opened, he wondered for a second if it was Ino and Sakura, like it was every morning, but since today seemed to be an extra special day, both banshee's arrived early with their parents in tow. He turned to the door to see Shikaku Nara, head of the Nara clan, and rumored to be recently signal, walked into the room with Itachi Uchiha, the first son of the Uchiha clan, who was rumored to be living with Shikaku, along with his mother, brother, and five year old twin sisters. Iruka also noticed that the fox that always seemed to accompany Naruto to school was with these two,  _"speaking of the demon, where the hell is he? Hokage-sama seemed to be aiming for the little gaki to pass this year,"_ the chunin mentally smirked at his own thoughts,  _"not if I have something to say about it."_

 

Shikaku, Itachi, and the fox, that Naruto refused to tell anyone his name, walked into the room, "gomen, Iruka-san, are we late?" The Nara head asked politely to the chunin.

 

Iruka was about to answer when he saw his co-worker and best friend walk into the room with stacks of papers, "actually no, Shikaku-san, you two just barely made it."

 

Shikaku nodded as he started up the stairs to the parents section in the back of the room, it seemed that this area was skillfully set up so that all the parents can look down on the students. If anyone was to cheat on the teat, either they or the chunin sensei's would catch them in the act and rip up their test, however, from what he and Itachi had heard from the boys about this class and it's ruling, he was happy that he had snuck into the academy late last night. Looking about the room, it seems that no one seems to have noticed the hidden cameras and recorders that he, itachi, and Naruto's shadow clones had changed placed there before the boys started school here. Last night they were just making sure that the batters and lenses were all still in working order, with all the footage they had on the boy's classmates, with the Sandime's permission of course, they would expose them all. Shikaku was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a faint sound of thing that sounded dangerously close to two boys begging for mercy, the Nara head and his two companions paled, all of them thinking,  _"please, don't let it be who I think it is."_   

 

But their internal prayers were in vain, because as soon as they finished that thought, Shikamaru and Sasuke burst into the room and slammed the door shut. Iruka's eye brow twitched, "Sasuke-san, Shikamaru-san, would you two mind telling me why you both are late?" The chunin sensei asked, trying to keep his irk out of his tone, though it still was noticed by the trained ears of the shinobi force,

 

Shikamaru gulped and gave a shaky smile to their sensei, "w-w-we o-over slept?" 

 

"Really now?" Iruka asked, the two boys nodded, the scared chunin pinched the bridge between his eyes and took in a deep breath to calm himself down, "alright then, how about you two take your seats so I may continue?" He said and they did, he went back to calling names and noticed that the so called 'demon' wasn't in the room yet, he smirked for a second before he hid it, but the ninja parents noticed and looked around to see the reason he would smirk. They also saw that the blond wasn't in the room yet and smirked as well, except for Shikaku and Itachi, Kurama kept a neutral face as he opened the mental link with the boys, making sure to add Itachi and Shikaku in the mix as well.

 

 _ **"Hay you bakas, where's my container?"**_ Kurama growled into each of their minds, it made the two boys glance at each other from across the room, both keeping neutral faces as they knew Kurama would be angry if Naruto wasn't with them. Although the other two slightly jumped after hearing Kurama's voice in their heads for the first time in a while, Kurama told them that they could open the link with him and the others for emergencies, but some times did it to scare them a little. Kurama did it was and Itachi fell out od a tree and almost broke his ankle, and Shikaku gave out a very 'manly scream', as he calls it. However, ever since they came back to the past, it seems that some how, Kurama got kicked out of the seal, but Naruto didn't die because of it, upon further inspection, it seems that, for whatever reason that they have yet to figure, Kurama's other have, Kura, was placed into the seal instead. They haven't found any altered history to say why that was, seeing as how Kurama  _should still_ be in the seal and not Kura, it bothered them a little, but since Naruto said that the first time he spoke to Kurama in his first time line was still a little ways off, they thought it best to way things out.  _ **"Well you pudgy meat sacks? Where the FUCK is he!"**_ This time around, Shikaku and Itachi looked down at the fox, then each other, before their gaze settled on the boys.

 

 _"Okay Kurama, Imma be totally honest with you when I say....we have no idea where Naru-chan is. HOWEVER, however, we know that he was right behind us when he we came in,"_ Shikamaru explained, hurriedly trying to keep the fox from exploding right then and there and blow their cover. Mainly his being the most troublesome to explain away.

 

 _ **"Excuse?"**_ Kurama said as he forcefully pulled each and everyone of them into his own mindscape, which he didn't think he could have without being inside the seal. Everyone that was apart of the link was pulled in and was now standing in front of Kurama in his true height. Shikamaru and Sasuke also reverted to their old selves from the future, Shikaku and Itachi remained the same, but was in awe to see what the two's future self's looked like. Shikamaru was tall and slim, a twin to his father, but after he lost his old man in the future, he shaved off his beard until he ran out of materials to do so and stopped looking in the mirror all together. His time in the past had brought back a lot of the pain, but spending time with his dad, training with him, it was helping a lot more than visiting a grave ever would. Sasuke was about the same way, but since he killed Itachi himself, it hurt even more than Shikamaru seeing his dad alive again, but they both hid it well. Kurama let out a sigh and laid down in the extremely tall grass,  **"from what I've seen,"** the fox started,  **"this building his not that big, you can only get lost in it so many times before you've memorized the whole damn lay out, so how in Kami-sama's did you lose him?"**

 

 _"It's like what Shika said, we lost him, he was right behind us, so close that he was almost on top of us. But as soon as soon as we closed the door, we couldn't sense him,"_ Sasuke explained.

 

This caught Itachi't attention, because he also noticed it,  _"he's right, I can't sense Naruto-kun either, as soon as I entered this room and the door was closed. It was like we were cut off from him or something."_

 

 _"Like a barrier was put up around the room so that anyone can get in, but not the person that people don't want to get in,"_ Shikaku spoke to himself. Everyone turned to him so he could explain, Kurama had an idea about the older Nara was talking about, but wanted him to be pacific. _"here's this seal that the Uzumaki clan came up with, they placed it around their homes and the village, they called it the 'keep out' seal because the person that they didn't want to enter would see those words. That's the seal I heard they use during the invasion that that whipped them out, except for Kushina-sama who went on to have Naruto-kun. Although...."_ He thought about the history behind that seal,  _"from what I heard, it needs a large power source that only an Uzumaki can provide without endangering their lives."_

 

 **"I know of that seal, it was supposed to be gone with the rest of Uzushiogakari, but it seems that someone's brought it back."** Kurama closed his eyes for a few moments before reopening them, he had a smile on his face,  **"you guys head on back, I've got some thinking to do."**

 

 _"Wha-"_   before any of them could protest, they were forced out of the fox's mind just as quick as they'd been forced into it, it was a head rush and made them feel a little light headed and dizzy. 

 

"Shikaku-san, are you alright?" Tsume, the Inuzuka clan head asked, a hand grasping the Nara head's shoulder after seeing him stumble back a bit.

 

Shikaku looked around him to see that Itachi, Sasuke, and Shikamaru seemed to be slightly disoriented for a second, but hid it a second later. Shikaku straightened himself out and thanked Tsume, "I'll be fine, just...thinking too much is all," he said nonchalantly, the dog user nodded to her fellow clan head before turning back to the class. Shikaku looked about and was amazed to see that only a few seconds had went by in the real world, he wondered how that worked, but his head was starting to pound from being forcefully pulled and pushed about mentally. It looked like Iruka had finally finished taking his roll call and still, there was no sign of Naruto, they could feel his presence and were starting to worry about the blond increasingly. 

 

"Alright everyone, it's time to start the first test, please take out a sheet of paper to work with and a no.2 pencil. You have one and a half hours to finish this test. Hajime," Iruka began the test after everyone got their test, he noticed that Mizuki had placed out an extra test in the seat that Naruto always sat in, which sat empty today. Ten minutes later, the first two people people finished the test, Shikamaru being first with Sasuke one second behind, next was Shino ten seconds before Sakura, who finished twenty seven minutes later, waving to her mom as she did so. Ino was next, followed by Neji and Hinata finishing at the same time, followed by Chouji, Tenten, a transfer student, a boy named Rock Lee, and Kiba bringing up the rare. The rest of the time was given to the civilian students who barely made the time limit for the test, and some who weren't able to finish their test all. Of course those students were not able to pass the test and were was sadly asked to either try again next time, or finish after the third part, who's ever idea that was was no friend to those children since everyone knew, if you can't finish a test like this on time, then you're doomed. "okay everyone, time to head out side to the training ground for the next of the test," all the students that finished their test left with their parents and guardians as Mizuki said behind to grade the test. Once outside, the third test was explained, "this test is actually in three parts as well," announced the scared chunin, but of course someone had to ask a dumb question.

 

"But sensei, why why does this test need to be in three parts when the test is already in three parts?" Sakura said with her hand raised, her mom did not think that there was something wrong with the question, though the other ninjas did since this was about the same test they had to do when they were in the academy themselves.

 

Iruka sweat dropped,  _"I was hoping that she would grow out this fangirl faze of hers, but it seems that the only thing that might save her maybe placing on a good team and working hard."_ He sighed and answered her question, "this test is the physical part Sakrua-san, this will be where I test you on taijutsu, genjutsu, and the basic weaponry that we've been teaching you all for the past years, If that is all the questions, everyone please line up from A-Z, with the children without last names line up the same way, but by first names." He waited until everyone was ready, "alright, first will be weapons, please come up and pick a weapon when your name is called and wait for orders." Shino went first, followed by Chouji, followed by a boy who didn't have a last name, but first name started with a G. Sakura was next because her last name started with H, TenTen, Hinata and Neji, Kibe followed them, a few civilian girls who's who first and last name started with L, aka, L Mirror as everyone called them. A orphan boy who's first name started with M, Shikamaru went next, Rock Lee soon followed him, Sasuke was after Lee, Naruto after the one armed boy, and a girl named Yumi went before Ino, who was last. Now that everyone was done, Iruka told everyone their scores.

 

                                  shuriken           kunai

Shino Abarame-         7/10               9/10

 

Chouji Akamichi-      6/10               7/10

 

Sakura Haruno-         5/10               5/10

 

TenTen Higarashi-     10/10             10/10

 

Hinata Hyuuga-         8/10                9/10

 

Neji Hyuuga-             9/10                10/10

 

Kiba Inuzuka-            9/10                 9/10

 

Shikamaru Nara-       10/10              10/10

 

Rock Lee-                   9/10                 9/10

 

Sasuke Uchiha-          10/10              10/10

 

Naruto Uzumaki -      10/10              10/10

 

Ino Yamanaka-           8/10                 9/10

 

"Wait, what? Naruto?" Iruka said as he realized what he just said, he looked over the class, as did the rest of the parents/guardians there and, indeed, there was Nauto standig right next to Sasuke. 

 

"HAY! WHY DOES THE DOBE GET TO TAKE THE SECOND TEST AND NOT THE FIRST ONE!!" Yelled the two loud mouths of the class.

 

Naruto looked at her as if she was crazy, "what are you talking about, Sakura-san? Kiba-san? I was in the class the whole tome we were taking the test, maybe because I was being so quite that I did go unnoticed from all of you so lone. After all, a ninja must know how to be and use stealth to their advantage around the enemy, isn't that right, Iruka-san?" Naruto asked as he undid the invisibility and memory genjutsu that he had he had placed on everyone when he entered the classroom unnoticedby everyone, even the clan heads. It was a simple genjutsu, well to him at least, the first one makes him go unseen until he wants to be see, and the second one makes it so that anyone, dojutsu or not, will forget that they've seen through his first genjutsu. It was a true work of art if he did say so himself.

 

Yet one person in the crowd of adults wanted to show their power or something, "well how come  _I_ didn't see you?" Asked Shia Haruno, member and head of the civilian council.

 

Naruto gave her the 'are you stupid' look before replying, "you don't seem to know how to dispel a genjutsu very well. If you did, you would have forgotten what you saw and your efforts would have been pointless," he said. Now angering some of the civilian's who was shouting about how rude he was being, when all he did was explain his technique to the pink woman.

 

Hiashi, who was here for both Neji and HInata, but mostly the former, stepped forward, "if that is true, then how did I not detect a genjutsu in the room? I have the Byakugon, there for, my clan and I are able to see through through such jutsu," he said in his usual monotone voice. "Would you mind showing how you did this jutsu? I would like to see it for myself," then for some reason, the Hyuuga clan head felt as if he had done this about a hundred time, but he didn't know why.

 

"I would do it again," Naruto stated, "but I have already done this about several times, and quite frankly, it is getting annoying. If you would like to see it again some other time where I can show you the difference between someone affected, and not affected by it, then ask me again at some other time. However, it seems that it is getting fairly late, and I would like to finish this test in time for a late lunch," Naruto spoke with such a polite and patient tone, that most thought that they were speaking to someone else.

 

Hiashi was upset by this and made a move that screamed he was ready to kill the blond, but again, he also felt as if he's already done such a thing. It was amazing to him on how this made him start to think,  _'what's going on? Why do I feel like I've done and seen this about a hundred times already?'_ thought the Hyuuga head, he sent a glare at the blond,  _'what's he up to? He hasn't even show the blasted jutsu that he spoke of, and now he was dismissing me? The never of this boy, 'll show him not to mess this his betters."_   Hiashi went into the jukin stance and charged at the boy, while others cheered him on, save a few,  _I"'ll show him!!"_

 

Naruto turned to the man and blinked, "are we done here? It's getting late and now we've missed lunch thanks to all of you," The blond said angrily as he crossed his arms.

 

The crowd before him looked at him as if he was to stupid to be alive, "what are you even talking about be? We've all been waiting for you to show us this jutsu for long enough, you're holding up the test so our children can graduate!" Tsume yelled at the boy.

 

Naruto sighed as he looked over to the side of the field, everyone thought that he was just stalling until he said, "maa, maa, shold I do it one more time? I should we just move on with the test, nii-can?"

 

Some civilian nobody was about to laugh at the so called 'demon gaki' for speaking to himself and tell hims something wrong about his family. But another voice shut that person up quickly, "naah, lets do the next test so we can move on already, I'm starting to get tired of watching them do the same thing over and over." Everyone looked to the source of the voice that found belonged to Itachi, they looked at the Uchiha, the older one, then looked at the spot he used to be standing among the crowd. They also noticed that Sasuke, Shikaku, and Shikamaru were sitting down next to him and the four was playing what looked to be poker,

 

"Nani? When did you all start playing poker?" Asked someone in the crowd, this person will not be named because they don't matter to the story

 

ShIkaku looked up at the crowd, who looked at him dumbly, then looked up at the position of the sun in the sky. "We started playing poker around the seventh time you guys started asking about Naruto's jutsu, you wouldn't let anyone leave until we all saw Naruto's justu." He said as the four gathered and packed away the cards, he stood and lazily walked over to Naruto, "If you all haven't noticed, it's almost past noon and we should have stared wrapping this test up by now."

 

What are you talking, Shikaku? We haven't been here that l-" Chouza started, but Shikamaru pointed up into the sky. They all looked to see that the son had moved and it was already passed Lunch time some how.

 

"How is this possible? It-" Iruka started to ask when suddenly a leaf shushin appeared to reveal......

 

**To be continued...........**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this chapter, I wanted to writ more, but I'm not feeling well and I don't know where my glasses are.


	8. Not our timeline

Naruto Uzumaki, in the previous timeline, was the deadlast. A loser, an idiot that didn't know anything about the reality of ninja life, but still perused it in the hopes of becoming Hokage one day. And when he actually did achieve his goal, a war brakes out and his chances of having his face carved into the mountain was lost, along with all the people there that finally saw him for what he truly was. A hero. 

 

Sasuke Uchiha, in the previous timeline, only cared about power and revenge. He became the avenger that got his revenge on his brother, and in doing so, found out all the secrets that his brother tired to hid from him. He found his love again, but it was to late to savor it, because he had killed his brother with his own two hands, in cold blood, without knowing the truth. Or even looking for it until after. He got his revenge, he got his friends to trust him again, but only after a few years had passed them by. He was a fool.

 

Shikamaru Nara, he was never meant to be anything special, or that's what he thought. When war broke out. When he held his dying wife and unborn child in his arms. When things started to build up and finally hit the fan, Shikamaru became the embodiment of his clans famed jutsu. A shadow. He was deadly in every way, he could kill from the shadows without being seen, but it took so much out of him, he lost so much. Wife, child, sensei, friends and teammates...and then his legs. He was nothing more than a shell after all that, but the war dragged on, and he happily dawned in it, if only to meet with his wife once more. He was broken.

 

Now, in this new time line, they were able to reverse that. They didn't know by how much, because every action had an opposite reaction, they were walking on a fine line that could easily snap and break. In the last time line, they didn't know or get along with each other very well, but now they did. In the last time line, no one expected anything from Naruto, hoping and expecting him to fail. In the last time line, Mizuke took the chance he was given and made Naruto steal the forbidden scroll of sealing and bring it to the forest. In the last timeline, Naruto beat Mizuki after learning the Kage Bunchin/shadow clone jutsu, and that allowed him to pass the test and become a genin. But that was in the last time line, and now...things weren't going exactly as planned. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke were all friends. The Nara clan head was host to the mother of Sasuke, Itachi, and their twin siblings. The Uchiha clan was still alive, but the head is going through divorce, which was unheard of for the clan. Itachi was not in ANBU, so he was not spying on his clan or the Hokage. And Naruto was showing strengths that would make the academy seem like they had over looked a prodigy somehow. Not to mention, in the last timeline, the parents of all the students were at home doing their own ting, instead of watching the test play out before their own eyes. Yes, a lot of things were changing, and the most biggest change of all, happened to be when Yagura Kratachi, the Yondime Mizukage, and jinturiki of the Sanbi, decided to show up along side the Sandime Hokage. What were the odds of that happening in the last time line? Oh right, almost -40%, it was at this moment that the three time traveling boys, and one fox, wondered,  _"how much of this timeline do we just fuck up?"_

 

"U-uh, Hokage-sama, what a surprise..." Iruka finally managed to say. He, as well as the others, were in wonder as to why the aged kage was doing here, and most of them (the shinobis, not civilians), knew that the kid he had with him was actually the fourth Mizukage, and not just some random kid with a scare on his face and gray hair. Iruka's voice managed to pull most of them from their shock at seeing the Sandime there, but they let Iruka talk so that they could get some information as well, "I there something that you need?"

 

"Yes, there is a very important matter that I would like to discus with you," the Hokage looked about the field for a moment, searching, "and you as well, Shikaku." Hiruzen Sarutobi, had been filling out paper work in his office as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. When all of a sudden, a masked ANBU that he had never seen before, but had the leaf symbol on him, came into the room, but the thing that really drew his attention was the forth Mizukage's body under his arm. Hiruzen had asked what the meaning of this was, the ANBU just handed him a letter and dumped the unconscious, young kage onto his couch before shushinning out of the office. When Hiruzen had relaxed enough to open the letter and read it's content, he nearly went to an early grave with a simultaneous stroke and heart attack occurring at the same time. In the letter it explained why the Mizukage was now laying in his office, and what the reason for him even being in the country was, the Sarutobi had to wonder, who that ANBU was, and why was it that he had done what he had done. But further more, he had wanted to know, why had he brought the Mizukage to his office in the first place. The letter also stated that he would be getting a visit from another foreigner in a few days, one from Suna, and this was the cause of yet another almost death, because of who the person was supposed to be, he swore that day that the universe was slowly, but surely, trying to kill him off in his old age, but being a reinstated kage, he would not let it...at at least not unless he had a another successor to take his place and look over the village. And take over the battle of never ending paper work. Not only this, but once the Sarutobi had recovered from his almost death, he went to check the unconscious Mizukage to see if he was still alive and well, which he was, and he made sure to have a medic look after him.

 

That was two days ago, and now he was just fulfilling the request of the letter that the unknown ANBU ninja had given him. After going over it in his mind, Hiruzen agreed that it would be better to just go with the flow, even though fire was supposed burn ahead. After Yagura had woken up from his two day nap, he was informed of what happened, and in return, he told the aged kage his side of the story. This was why Hiruzen had decided to bring the boy in the academy now, since it was just past time when the genin exam was supposed to be nearing some sort of a break, he wanted to talk to Iruka and his jonin commander alone about all of this. Showing up expecting an empty school yard, come to his surprise when there's still students and parents there still, and since he was a kage, he had every right to ask, "by the way,  why are you all still out here? I though by this time you would have all moved inside by now, what is the meaning of this?" Asked the Sarutobi as he scanned the crowd, it looked like they had been standing there for about an hour and a half now, maybe more.

 

One loud civilian woman, you know it is, yelled out "IT'S THE DEMON'S FAULT! HE'S THE ONE THAT KEEPS DOING SOME TRICK ON US AND WONT LET US LEAVE, WE'VE ASKED HIM TO SHOW IT TO US FOR THE HUNDRED TIME NOW!"

 

Hiruzen raised an eye brow, this was new, he didn't think that Naruto would have something up his sleeve that could keep fully grown adults and other clan head in one spot for so long. This didn't seem like one of his pranks, but then again, in his recent years, the blond had been getting more crafty with his trick, so it was possible. "Very well, Naruto, if you could please stop by my office after this, I would like to see what this is all about, but in the mean time, take a break and have lunch if you haven't already."

 

"But it's not lunch time yet, Hokage-sama," came the reply of Sakura, who hadn't realized that they had, in fact, been standing the same spot for nearly two hours now.

 

"Actually it, if you would look up at the sun, you would know that," Naruto pointed out as he walked passed the pinkette to his time traveling friends. 

 

"Who asked you, baka-" Sakura started, but before she could hit Naruto, Sasuke caught her hand. Sakura blushed because he crush was touching her, "S-Sasuke-kun," she said in an embarrassed way, getting lost in her own world.

 

"I would appreciate it if you didn't beat up my friend any more," Sasuke stated, much to everyone's shock. They didn't expect him to say that, and here he was, saying it, he didn't wait for her response, or anyone's, as he walked back over to stand with Itachi and Shikamaru, as Shikamaru's father walked over to the kage. When he was standing with his self assigned group, he spoke up, "what's the fouth Mizukage doing here? I though he was supposed to be under control by Akatsuki or dead by this point in time." He asked as he watched the gray haired boy the three adults, he couldn't help but feel that something was off, not with the boy, but with the situation.

 

"I don't know, from what Naruto told me after that bijuu and their containers were killed and their collective contentiousness were gather so they could give him some of their chakra. It seems that Yagura was supposed to die a couple of months back, but something must have changed," Shikamaru said as he rubbed his chin, where his beard usually was. He missed his beard...and cigarettes, among other things, but he couldn't dwell on that now.

 

Itachi was confused by this conversation, until he remembered some of what the boys told him and Shikaku when they found out about the whole future thing. Honestly, it was still hard to believe, and he was supposed to be a genius. "Am I to assume that something went wrong?" Itachi asked, two out of the three looked at him, "what I mean is, in your time line, from what I understand, you have done many things different than in that time. In fact, just having this talk, this friendship, as well as that jutsu that Naruto demonstrated to us after releasing us from it's hold. All of it has changed the future drastically from your own timeline, so wouldn't something like this be expected?"

 

"Hmm, yes, but the way we act and stuff now, compared to back then, that would have most likely have only contained to the village. Since we were just getting along and stuff like that, it wouldn't have changed much right now, it would have later, like during the chunin exams, but not right now. We haven't even become genin yet." Sasuke informed his brother, "to have the Forth Mizukage show up here, in the village, when he was supposed to be dead a few short months from now, is a change that was not supposed to happen, at all."

 

"Yeah, I could understand how things like, I don't know, the massacre not happening, was probably a pretty big change. One that might not lead Orochimaru into attacking the village to get to Sasuke, then have the Sandime die while fighting the snake teme, and have Sasuke leave the village, which would ultimately lead to the rescue mission and all that. However!" Shikamaru went on when he saw Sasue about to berate him for telling so much of his future to his brother, "since things have changed so much, Yagura being a good example, I can safely say that that future may not even happen any more. Who knows, the Sandime might actually live through the chunin exams, Naruto may not need to go and get Tsunda-sama to be the fifth Hokage in place of his death, and then go off on his three year training trip with Ero-sannin after all."

 

"Mmm, that's true..but still, we can't rule just yet," Itachi pipped up. He folded his arms as he thought, "since I became a jonin, instead of an ANBU like you said I would, there's a possibility that I could become you jonin sensei instead of Kakashi. You three could be a whole new team than before, team seven may not even be formed, there may also be more people who pass the second test this time around. Also," he drew his eyes away from the boys to stare at the child kage who was standing near to the three adults, "since the Mizukage is here, then there is also a possibility that he may be placed on one of your teams as well."

 

The two boys nodded at this and put up a thoughtful expression until they noted that Naruto had been pretty silent for a while now. It's not like him, not his past self, or him from the future had been so quite for so long. When they turned to him, it seemed that he was going through the motions and making corresponding faces to go with said emotions, like happy, relief, sad, and angry seem to be the four most on his face right now. With angry and sad being the most present at the moment, it seems that it was very important that they wait to find out what it is causing his emotional flux, least they be flipped and beaten by a frustrated, blond Uzumaki. When he finally took a breath to calm himself, hopefully, he turned to the others, the look on his face spoke of frustration, at himself of someone else, they couldn't be sure. "You okay, Naru-chan?" Shikamaru asked, trying to calm his best friend.

 

"No, but I will be once I get my hands on those damn clones I made," Naruto said. An undertone of a growl was heard, but they decided that, since it was directed at one of them this time, they would ignore it until they are told other wise.

 

"What did they do? Where they able to set up all the evidence and stuff for the story we told seven years ago?" Shikamaru asked, yes, even though it's been so long already, the evidence that they would need to close down the Salty Pineapple, the place for shady people and business to happen, was going to take longer than a few months to gather. First they had to set the scene, next, documents had to either be found and partly destroyed, or faked, then they needed to dig up dirt on people that could be involved in the story that they told to the Sandime and Shikaku. Even though Shikaku had known that the story was fake, he still wants to get his hands on the guys that would even think about doing such things to other children, even if it wasn't his own child that it happened to, knowing that it was happening to other children was beyond disgusting to him. If Shikamaru or Sasuke wasn't from a clan, it could very well be them that it was happening to, and Naruto was overly luck that it didn't happen to him before then. (Not that Naruto was doing to tell then that it had and his side of the story was real, but still, it made the story that much more believable, so why give up their hopes?) Finally, after all the other stuff was done, Naruto's clones would only need to transform into one of the people they got dirt on, and draw attention so that person. The rest would follow at some point.

 

 

"Well..." Naruto thought, "they did do most of what we wanted. They got evidence and they made it appear on the old man's desk like we wanted, but, since they were out for so long, and were created by a blood clone. Um....they kind of took on a life of their own, not much of a personality, but you know, they're starting to stray away from the plan."

 

"Excuse up?" Sasuke asked, "they're doing what? I thought that clones were meant to follow the orders of the creator?"

 

"Uh, yes and no, actually, you're right about the whole base concept, however, ugh, how do I put this?" Naruto scratched his head as he thought, "he then snapped his fingers, "okay, think about it like this. There are hundreds of trees in the forest, but on every tree looks completely the same, right? If you look closely, you would see that some trees are older, some are taller, and some are a different shade from the others, but they're all trees. They grow just about the same, but not all trees grow in the same place and direction, like say, a sunflower would grow facing the sun, and a child will copy a parent. A tree, even though they look the same, will have a different view of things, like how we are standing right now, if that makes sense to you. Sasuke will always remember standing and seeing me and you, while you will always remember seeing me and Sasuke, and I will remember seeing the two of you, you get it?" 

 

Shikamaru nodded, Itachi seems to get the gist of it, but Sasuke looked like he had a head ache trying to follow along. "Can you say that in a more simple way?" the younger Uchiha asked.

 

Naruto raised an eye brow at him, "listen, all you need to know is that I made a blood clone a few years back to handle that mission, and deal with the clones. It has half of mine and Kurama's chakra, so it can still do shadow clone, however, since the clone will be making clones, the plan gets a little watery if there are too many clones. The most that the blood clone can make is about may fifty to two hundred, which is still a lot by normal standers." He explained, "however, somehow, the clone's clones went off on their own somewhere while trying to get evidence and brought back the Mizukage, alive, and from what I can see, mostly unharmed. I have no real idea if the clone who brought him back took out the guy that was controlling him before last time-"

 

"Whyy not? Didn't one of the clones that were involved dispel, allowing you to get their memories?" Itachi asked, he knew the jutsu well and was impressed by the feats that Naruto was able to use and develop it mostly on his own.

 

Naruto shook his head, "no, that clone is still out there doing what it need to do, or was ordered to do. Maybe this was a fluke or something and it happened by accident, but one thing is for sure, we're walking on shaky ground here. Matter of fact, we better play it cool right now, Sakura and some of the parent are heading over her right now." He said as he watched the small crowd approach them from the corner of his eye, though he did not acknowledge them when they were just mere inches away from him or his face.

 

"And what are you doing over hear, baka, you're bothering Sasuke-kun," Sakura said in her usual high pitched voice that still hurt peoples ears, even when she wasn't yelling.

 

Naruto did not turn to face Sakura, he knew that the crowd that was standing only a yard away from them were listening for his reaction. He could only roll his eyes mentally, "who said I was doing anything of the sort? Sasuke, am I bothering you in away?" The blond ask his friend, who shook his head, much to Sakura's surprise.

 

"Not at all, Naruto, we were just talking when Sakura just decided to interrupt our conversation. If anything, I would say that she is bothering us," Sasuke stated, alos not looking at Sakura.

 

"Troublesome, now she's going to start yelling at us or something, why do women have to be so troublesome?" Shikamaru muttered.

 

"Where're you married to a woman in the future?" Itachi whispered so that only Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru could hear him, the first two boys chuckled why the third blushed, making an indignant sound.

 

Sakura blushed, she had never heard Sasuke chuckle before, in fact, she had never heard or seen Sasuke show any outward emotions what so ever til now. The sound, it was so light and care free that it made her smile and blush from just hearing it, but then she got mad and glared at the blond. Since she couldn't make her 'Sasuke-kun' make that sound, why could he? He was the deadlast of the class, always getting into trouble and asking her out on dates and just being annoying in general. Why was  _her_ crush and one true love, laughing at something the blond said, and not something she said? It made her so mad that she clenched her fist and hit the blond dobe with all her might, which wasn't a whole lot because she didn't train or anything other than what was needed, so she was understandably week. There for, he punches right now felt as if Naruto was being hit in the head by a toddler's tiny little fist, if he had been hit by the Sakura of their time, it would have hurt way more, maybe even damage him some.

 

"OW! What was that for?" Naruto whined, pretending that she actually hurt him, even though it just annoyed him. He had to put up with six years of this, and it didn't seem like she knew that she was doing it for a stupid reason, or at least, not yet. "Why you keep hitting me? I was just telling the truth."

 

"CHA! YEAH RIGHT, you're nothing more than some annoying dobe that's always trying to act cool like Sasuke-kun. You'll NEVER be that cool, ever! I just wanted to make sure I knocked some sense into you before you go and bring Sasuke-kun down to your pathetic level!" Sakura said, rather loudly, even though they doubted that she realized it, so everyone in the area heard what she was saying. The shinobi's were shaking their heads had her fan girl nature, while the civilian were silently praising her for hurting the 'demon'.

 

"Bring-wait what? I'm not sure I understand what she's talking about, Sasu-chan, can you explain to me what you're classmate is trying to say?" Itachi asked, acting confused as he turning to his little brother, causing Shikamaru to chuckle at the nickname.

 

Sasuke, even though he was about to become a ninja now, was embarrassed that his big brother still called him 'chan'. He sighed, "I'm not sure either, but it seems that she thinks Naruto's some loser or something, like he's a nobody that don't know a think, or something like that."

 

It was at this point that Sakura's mother, what's her name, came into the picture, trying to seem like she was the 'cool mom' that she thought she was. "Well obviously he is nothing more than some nobody that doesn't know a thing, honestly Sasuke-kun, I don't know how you manage to stand near this thing. It could corrupt your mind with it's filth at any given moment, it's best that you be careful," she said boldly, since the Sandime was still over with Iruka, Shukaku and the new kid that she's never seen around the village before. She thought that the boy looked okay enough, the scar under his eye seemed to interest her somewhat, and if things didn't work out with Sasuke and her daughter, if this new kid was strong, then she would encourage Sakura to go after him instead, or maybe go after both, you never. Having the right power under you thumb was the only way to do politics in this village, she should know, since she's on the civilian council, she's going to have to report this to the other civilian councilmen later. "In fact, speaking of good company, why don't you spend some time with my daughter, hm? I'm sure that you would much rather have a nice get together with one of the smartest girls in your class th-" but she was cut off.

 

"No thanks, I wouldn't go out with Sakura even if you paid me," Sasuke stated coldly, the Uchiha standers are more than just politics. Not even Fugaku would want to marry someone from the Haruno clan, let alone someone surrounding it, civilian clnas all together left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Except for the Yokon clan, they were not like the other civilian clans. They didn't push for power.

 

"I'm glad we have an understanding, I'll have Saukra ready by eight," Sakura's mother, who's name is somewhat sounds like a cow's calling, stated. Until she stopped to process what the young Uchiha had said, "wait, WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN WOU-"

 

"I'ts like I said, I wont go out with her, not even if you pay me. Now if you would please leave me alone, I do not wish to talk about this any longer," Sasuke turned completely away from the woman. Sakura, after hearing all of this, felt defeated, not only did her crush take the side of Naruto, he also rejected her, twice, in the span of five minutes.

 

"B-bu-bu-but why?" Sakura asked, tears in her eyes.

 

No one answered her, or her mother, they turned to the Hokage when they felt him getting closer, "everyone, this is Yagura, he's new to the village and will be taking the exams with you. If any one has a problem with that, you can see me in my office and we can discus everything there," he shot a pointed look at the adults backing Sakura. They were sweating, wondering how much trouble would they be in, "that's all I have to say, now Iruka-san, please continue on with the test. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Paring ideas anyone? It could be any one from Naruto, even Kurama. It could also be boyxboy, boyxgirl, a harem, or a three way, which ever is fine.


End file.
